Monday, October 21, 2013

Glacial buzz-saws, gold in fool's gold, fingerprints in sea water, and fluvial iron

Glacial buzz-saws, gold in fool's gold, fingerprints in sea water, and fluvial iron


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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Oct-2013



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Contact: Kea Giles
kgiles@geosociety.org
Geological Society of America



New Geology articles posted online ahead of print 16 October 2013




Boulder, Colo., USA New article postings for Geology cover glacial erosion and glacial slip; the work of marine organisms in changing the face of Earth; collisional shortening in the Central Alps; changes in sediment transport in Taiwan after typhoon Morakot in 2009; a new type of iron formation, dubbed "fluvial iron formation"; kimberlites in South Africa; using fossil marine plankton records in 70-million-year-old sediments as indicators of sea ice formation and retreat; and Greenland Ice Sheet behavior.


Highlights are provided below. GEOLOGY articles published ahead of print can be accessed online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent. All abstracts are open-access at http://geology.gsapubs.org/; representatives of the media may obtain complimentary GEOLOGY articles by contacting Kea Giles at the address above.


Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GEOLOGY in articles published. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance.


Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.



Selective glacial erosion on the Norwegian passive margin

Adrian M. Hall et al., School of Geography and GeoSciences, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, North Street, St Andrews KY16 9AL, Fife, Scotland, UK; amh22@st-andrews.ac.uk. Co-authors: Karin Ebert, Johan Kleman, Atle Nesje, and Dag Ottesen. Posted online ahead of print on 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34806.1.


Glaciers cut down and cut deep, carving deep valleys in mountains. This efficient erosion -- the glacial buzz-saw -- operates best at the snowline where glaciers are thickest and fastest moving. But can glaciers also cut horizontally to create low angle surfaces or plateaus? That's what has been claimed recently to have happened during the Ice Age on the west coast of Norway. We provide evidence that the plateaus have been cut into by and so are older than cirques and valley glaciers. We also find no relationship to cirque distribution or to Pleistocene snowlines. The gentle, high elevation surfaces of this and other glaciated passive margins are largely inherited from Neogene non-glacial, fluvial environments. Yet Pleistocene glacial erosion has done far In Norway than to cut its magnificent fjords -- many hundreds of meters of soft rocks must have been removed from the coastal and inshore zone to account for the huge sediment volumes offshore.



Does gold in orogenic deposits come from pyrite in deeply buried carbon-rich sediments?: Insight from volatiles in fluid inclusions

Damien Gaboury, Laboratoire de Mtallognie Exprimentale et Quantitative (LAMEQ), Universit du Qubec Chicoutimi (UQAC), 555 Boulevard de l'Universit, Chicoutimi, Qubec G7H 2B1, Canada; dgaboury@uqac.ca. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34788.1


Orogenic gold deposits form an important class of hydrothermal deposits distributed in metamorphic volcano-sedimentary belts worldwide. It is accepted that gold-bearing fluids are generated by metamorphic dehydration reactions at depth (about 5 to 12 km) following mountain building during tectonic collisional events. However, the source of gold remains speculative and because of that, key criteria for selecting favorable areas for exploration is lacking. Recently, it was proposed that gold in primary nodular pyrite hosted in organic matter-rich shale was the source. Results presented here by Damien Gaboury provide an independent validation of this model. It was postulated that if gold-bearing fluids are derived from organic-rich material, fluids involved in the formation of gold deposits should contain some hydrocarbon species. Fluid inclusions are microscopic bubbles of trapped fluids in minerals. Fluid inclusions from selected deposits around the world were analyzed for volatile composition by solid-probe mass spectrometry following a unique technique developed by the author. It is demonstrated that ethane (C2H6) is sourced from thermally degraded organic matter, hence providing a reliable tracer. The C2H6 content is recorded in fluids from Meso-Archean to Cretaceous gold deposits, providing support for a general model where fluids and gold were sourced from deeply buried, carbon-rich, and pyrite-gold-bearing sedimentary rocks.



Tectonic forcing of Early to Middle Jurassic seawater Sr/Ca

Clemens V. Ullmann et al., University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, and Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE), ster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen-K, Denmark; c.v.ullmann@gmx.net. Co-authors: Stephen P. Hesselbo, and Christoph Korte. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34817.1.


Earth's surface changes slowly, because of plate tectonic processes, long-term changes in climate, and even due to the activities of living organisms. On timescales of millions of years, these acting forces leave specific fingerprints in the chemical composition of seawater. Marine organisms record information about seawater composition in their shells. Fossil shell remains of such organisms can be used to estimate the variations of seawater composition through time and to evaluate the acting forces, leading to the observed variability. Around the Triassic-Jurassic transition (~201 million years ago), fundamental changes in the plate tectonic setting commenced and one of the most severe mass extinction events known from the geologic record occurred. The evolving seawater composition during ~37 million years after this important transition was tracked here by measuring the concentration and isotopic composition of strontium in the shells of oyster-like bivalves and belemnites -- extinct, marine predators. The observed patterns are attributed to an overall decreasing importance of strontium from weathering continental rocks with respect to strontium derived from Earth's mantle at the Mid Ocean Ridges. A major impact on seawater composition, related to the changing and recovering ecosystems, and the spreading of calcite producing nannoplankton, however, is not indicated.



Three-dimensional insight into Central-Alpine collision: Lower-plate or upper-plate indentation?

Claudio L. Rosenberg, UPMC University of Paris 6, ISTEP, F-75005, Paris, France; claudio.rosenberg@upmc.fr. Co-author: Eduard Kissling. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34584.1.


Accommodation of collisional shortening in the Central Alps varies dramatically along strike. In the western Central Alps, 90% of shortening is accommodated in the thickened lower plate. In the eastern Central Alps, 90% of shortening is accommodated in the upper plate. In the central part of the Central Alps shortening is almost equally partitioned between the two plates. Whereas the upper plate indents into the thickened accreted lower plate in the Simplon section, it is the lower plate that indents an intensely deforming upper plate in the Engadine section. In the west, the Ivrea mantle body increases the strength of the Adriatic upper plate and Barrovian metamorphism weakens the lower plate. Therefore, along-strike transfer of shortening from one plate to the other appears to be a manifestation of along-strike changes of rheology deep in the crust.



Altered regional sediment transport regime after a large typhoon, southern Taiwan

Michelle Y.-F. Huang, Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan; michelleyfhuang@gmail.com; ae2612@hotmail.com. Co-author: David R. Montgomery, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34826.1.


Analyses of river-suspended sediment response to record-breaking regional rainfall in southern Taiwan during typhoon Morakot, 7-9 August 2009, reveal systematic changes in the regional sediment transport regime as characterized by rating curve parameters. These changes result in much greater sediment concentration, and thus sediment transport, in subsequent low-flow events after the typhoon, an effect that amplifies and extends the influence of such extreme events through increased low-flow sediment transport. Findings by Michelle Huang and David Montgomery show that the rating curve exponent is not constant contrasts with the conventional assumption that large events influence sediment yields through increased intercept values, thereby supporting the interpretation that basin sediment delivery influences both rating parameters, and increases post-event low-flow sediment transport. Surveys of landslide density and riverbed grain sizes before and after typhoon Morakot support the interpretation that the observed changes reflect an altered sediment transport regime and a shift from channel migration and bank erosion to reworking of landslide debris and enhanced bed mobility as the dominant processes supplying fluvial sediment.



Late Cretaceous winter sea ice in Antarctica?

Vanessa C. Bowman et al., School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; v.c.bowman@leeds.ac.uk or vcbowman@gmail.com. Co-authors: Jane E. Francis, and James B. Riding. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34891.1.


Scientists have found evidence of sea ice at a time in the geological past when forests covered Antarctica and the climate was thought to be very warm. Geologists from the University of Leeds, UK, and the British Geological Survey, supported by the British Antarctic Survey, undertook fieldwork and laboratory analysis over a period of four years. They interpreted the record of fossil marine plankton in Cretaceous sediments (70 million years ago) as indicators of sea ice formation and retreat. This implies that ice sheets may have existed on Antarctica under a high CO2 climate. These results help us reconstruct the history of the Antarctic ice sheet in order to understand how the ice sheet is responding to climate warming today and how it may behave in the future.



A re-evaluation of the Pleistocene behavior of the Scoresby Sund sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Jan Sverre Laberg et al., Department of Geology, University of Troms, N-9037 Troms, Norway; jan.laberg@uit.no. Co-authors: Matthias Forwick, Katrine Husum, and Tove Nielsen. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34784.1.


The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest ice sheet outside of Antarctica. The amount of water stored equals seven meters of global sea-level rise so that the future behavior of the ice sheet is of global concern. However, limited data on the past dynamics of the Ice Sheet exceeding the ice-core records have led to partly contradictory reconstructions. Whereas the Scoresby Sund sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet has been suggested to be stable and not much larger than at present during the peak Pleistocene glaciations, the southeastern sector of the Ice Sheet has been inferred to be much more dynamic. Jan Sverre Laberg, Matthias Forwick, Katrine Husum, and Tove Nielsen present seismic data showing that glaciogenic debris-flow deposits dominate the earlier than ca. 2.58 Ma succession of the Scoresby Sund Trough Mouth Fan on the East Greenland continental margin, suggesting much more frequent expansions of the Greenland Ice Sheet to the shelf break than found previously. This rapid response of the glacier to climate forcing indicates how dynamic is the glacier ice front and what one might expect of the glacier as the influences of climate warming become more pronounced.



Riverine mixing and fluvial iron formation: A new type of Precambrian biochemical sediment

Peir K. Pufahl et al., Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4P 2R6, Canada; peir.pufahl@acadiau.ca. Co-authors: Franco Pirajno, and Eric E. Hiatt. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34812.1.


The deposition of Precambrian iron formation is perhaps one of the least understood phenomena in the Earth sciences. This iron-rich sedimentary rock precipitated in some way from seawater and therefore holds important clues about the composition of the early oceans and atmosphere as well as the evolution of life. For example, the appearance of large, economically important iron formations reflects photosynthetic oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere approximately 2.5 billion-years-ago. In this paper, Peir Pufahl, with Franco Pirajno and Eric Hiatt, introduce a new type of iron formation, fluvial iron formation, which formed by mixing river discharge and seawater in coastal environments. Their results are significant because it shifts the locus of known iron formation precipitation processes into estuarine settings, providing a new window for understanding ocean-atmosphere development on the early Earth.



Kimberlite (U-Th)/He dating links surface erosion with lithospheric heating, thinning, and metasomatism in the southern African Plateau

Jessica R. Stanley et al., Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA; jessica.stanley@colorado.edu. Co-authors: Rebecca M. Flowers, and David R. Bell. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34797.1.


Documenting the response at Earth's surface to processes at depth is a central challenge in continental tectonics. Kimberlites are ultramafic magmas derived from a depth greater than 150 km, famous for bringing diamonds to the surface, as well as other information about the state of the lithosphere in the form of mantle xenoliths. Though less well studied, kimberlites also contain xenoliths from sedimentary units present at the time of eruption, which may have since eroded away. In this study, Jessica Stanley, Rebecca Flowers, and David Bell combine constraints from sedimentary xenoliths with cooling histories derived from apatite (U-Th)/He dating of kimberlites to constrain 1-2 km of Mesozoic erosion across the interior of South Africa. This erosion pulse is contemporaneous with heating, thinning, and metasomatism of the lithosphere below documented in the mantle xenoliths from these same pipes. Thus, the data presented here appear to record the surface response to active processes in the mantle.



Glacier slip and seismicity induced by surface melt

Peter L. Moore et al., Department of Geological and Atmospheric Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA; pmoore@iastate.edu. Co-authors: J. Paul Winberry, Neal R. Iverson, Knut A. Christianson, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, Miriam Jackson, Mark E. Mathison, and Denis Cohen. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34760.1.


Peter Moore and colleagues installed instruments for measuring seismic activity, sliding, and stress at the bottom of Engabreen, a glacier in northern Norway where a hydro-power facility allows human access to the glacier bed. The instruments measured pronounced glacier response to meltwater input during the onset of summer melt in May 2010 and 2011. This paper documents three separate episodes in which surface melt or precipitation introduced a pulse of water to the glacier bed and our instruments measured the glacier's response. The added water briefly enhanced glacier sliding as it pressurized cavities between the ice and underlying bedrock, locally lifting the ice. Enhanced sliding ceased, however, when the increased cavity size and connectivity allowed the water to be evacuated from the cavities more efficiently -- a few hours in each case. During each of these events, broadband seismometers in the tunnels a few meters below the glacier bed detected tilt, interpreted as a slight deformation of the rock as water pressurized basal cavities. Though measurements also suggest that enhanced sliding at the bed exploited a frictional interface, no seismic activity directly associated with this slip could be resolved.


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Glacial buzz-saws, gold in fool's gold, fingerprints in sea water, and fluvial iron


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Oct-2013



[


| E-mail

]


Share Share

Contact: Kea Giles
kgiles@geosociety.org
Geological Society of America



New Geology articles posted online ahead of print 16 October 2013




Boulder, Colo., USA New article postings for Geology cover glacial erosion and glacial slip; the work of marine organisms in changing the face of Earth; collisional shortening in the Central Alps; changes in sediment transport in Taiwan after typhoon Morakot in 2009; a new type of iron formation, dubbed "fluvial iron formation"; kimberlites in South Africa; using fossil marine plankton records in 70-million-year-old sediments as indicators of sea ice formation and retreat; and Greenland Ice Sheet behavior.


Highlights are provided below. GEOLOGY articles published ahead of print can be accessed online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent. All abstracts are open-access at http://geology.gsapubs.org/; representatives of the media may obtain complimentary GEOLOGY articles by contacting Kea Giles at the address above.


Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GEOLOGY in articles published. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance.


Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.



Selective glacial erosion on the Norwegian passive margin

Adrian M. Hall et al., School of Geography and GeoSciences, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, North Street, St Andrews KY16 9AL, Fife, Scotland, UK; amh22@st-andrews.ac.uk. Co-authors: Karin Ebert, Johan Kleman, Atle Nesje, and Dag Ottesen. Posted online ahead of print on 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34806.1.


Glaciers cut down and cut deep, carving deep valleys in mountains. This efficient erosion -- the glacial buzz-saw -- operates best at the snowline where glaciers are thickest and fastest moving. But can glaciers also cut horizontally to create low angle surfaces or plateaus? That's what has been claimed recently to have happened during the Ice Age on the west coast of Norway. We provide evidence that the plateaus have been cut into by and so are older than cirques and valley glaciers. We also find no relationship to cirque distribution or to Pleistocene snowlines. The gentle, high elevation surfaces of this and other glaciated passive margins are largely inherited from Neogene non-glacial, fluvial environments. Yet Pleistocene glacial erosion has done far In Norway than to cut its magnificent fjords -- many hundreds of meters of soft rocks must have been removed from the coastal and inshore zone to account for the huge sediment volumes offshore.



Does gold in orogenic deposits come from pyrite in deeply buried carbon-rich sediments?: Insight from volatiles in fluid inclusions

Damien Gaboury, Laboratoire de Mtallognie Exprimentale et Quantitative (LAMEQ), Universit du Qubec Chicoutimi (UQAC), 555 Boulevard de l'Universit, Chicoutimi, Qubec G7H 2B1, Canada; dgaboury@uqac.ca. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34788.1


Orogenic gold deposits form an important class of hydrothermal deposits distributed in metamorphic volcano-sedimentary belts worldwide. It is accepted that gold-bearing fluids are generated by metamorphic dehydration reactions at depth (about 5 to 12 km) following mountain building during tectonic collisional events. However, the source of gold remains speculative and because of that, key criteria for selecting favorable areas for exploration is lacking. Recently, it was proposed that gold in primary nodular pyrite hosted in organic matter-rich shale was the source. Results presented here by Damien Gaboury provide an independent validation of this model. It was postulated that if gold-bearing fluids are derived from organic-rich material, fluids involved in the formation of gold deposits should contain some hydrocarbon species. Fluid inclusions are microscopic bubbles of trapped fluids in minerals. Fluid inclusions from selected deposits around the world were analyzed for volatile composition by solid-probe mass spectrometry following a unique technique developed by the author. It is demonstrated that ethane (C2H6) is sourced from thermally degraded organic matter, hence providing a reliable tracer. The C2H6 content is recorded in fluids from Meso-Archean to Cretaceous gold deposits, providing support for a general model where fluids and gold were sourced from deeply buried, carbon-rich, and pyrite-gold-bearing sedimentary rocks.



Tectonic forcing of Early to Middle Jurassic seawater Sr/Ca

Clemens V. Ullmann et al., University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, and Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE), ster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen-K, Denmark; c.v.ullmann@gmx.net. Co-authors: Stephen P. Hesselbo, and Christoph Korte. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34817.1.


Earth's surface changes slowly, because of plate tectonic processes, long-term changes in climate, and even due to the activities of living organisms. On timescales of millions of years, these acting forces leave specific fingerprints in the chemical composition of seawater. Marine organisms record information about seawater composition in their shells. Fossil shell remains of such organisms can be used to estimate the variations of seawater composition through time and to evaluate the acting forces, leading to the observed variability. Around the Triassic-Jurassic transition (~201 million years ago), fundamental changes in the plate tectonic setting commenced and one of the most severe mass extinction events known from the geologic record occurred. The evolving seawater composition during ~37 million years after this important transition was tracked here by measuring the concentration and isotopic composition of strontium in the shells of oyster-like bivalves and belemnites -- extinct, marine predators. The observed patterns are attributed to an overall decreasing importance of strontium from weathering continental rocks with respect to strontium derived from Earth's mantle at the Mid Ocean Ridges. A major impact on seawater composition, related to the changing and recovering ecosystems, and the spreading of calcite producing nannoplankton, however, is not indicated.



Three-dimensional insight into Central-Alpine collision: Lower-plate or upper-plate indentation?

Claudio L. Rosenberg, UPMC University of Paris 6, ISTEP, F-75005, Paris, France; claudio.rosenberg@upmc.fr. Co-author: Eduard Kissling. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34584.1.


Accommodation of collisional shortening in the Central Alps varies dramatically along strike. In the western Central Alps, 90% of shortening is accommodated in the thickened lower plate. In the eastern Central Alps, 90% of shortening is accommodated in the upper plate. In the central part of the Central Alps shortening is almost equally partitioned between the two plates. Whereas the upper plate indents into the thickened accreted lower plate in the Simplon section, it is the lower plate that indents an intensely deforming upper plate in the Engadine section. In the west, the Ivrea mantle body increases the strength of the Adriatic upper plate and Barrovian metamorphism weakens the lower plate. Therefore, along-strike transfer of shortening from one plate to the other appears to be a manifestation of along-strike changes of rheology deep in the crust.



Altered regional sediment transport regime after a large typhoon, southern Taiwan

Michelle Y.-F. Huang, Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan; michelleyfhuang@gmail.com; ae2612@hotmail.com. Co-author: David R. Montgomery, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34826.1.


Analyses of river-suspended sediment response to record-breaking regional rainfall in southern Taiwan during typhoon Morakot, 7-9 August 2009, reveal systematic changes in the regional sediment transport regime as characterized by rating curve parameters. These changes result in much greater sediment concentration, and thus sediment transport, in subsequent low-flow events after the typhoon, an effect that amplifies and extends the influence of such extreme events through increased low-flow sediment transport. Findings by Michelle Huang and David Montgomery show that the rating curve exponent is not constant contrasts with the conventional assumption that large events influence sediment yields through increased intercept values, thereby supporting the interpretation that basin sediment delivery influences both rating parameters, and increases post-event low-flow sediment transport. Surveys of landslide density and riverbed grain sizes before and after typhoon Morakot support the interpretation that the observed changes reflect an altered sediment transport regime and a shift from channel migration and bank erosion to reworking of landslide debris and enhanced bed mobility as the dominant processes supplying fluvial sediment.



Late Cretaceous winter sea ice in Antarctica?

Vanessa C. Bowman et al., School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; v.c.bowman@leeds.ac.uk or vcbowman@gmail.com. Co-authors: Jane E. Francis, and James B. Riding. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34891.1.


Scientists have found evidence of sea ice at a time in the geological past when forests covered Antarctica and the climate was thought to be very warm. Geologists from the University of Leeds, UK, and the British Geological Survey, supported by the British Antarctic Survey, undertook fieldwork and laboratory analysis over a period of four years. They interpreted the record of fossil marine plankton in Cretaceous sediments (70 million years ago) as indicators of sea ice formation and retreat. This implies that ice sheets may have existed on Antarctica under a high CO2 climate. These results help us reconstruct the history of the Antarctic ice sheet in order to understand how the ice sheet is responding to climate warming today and how it may behave in the future.



A re-evaluation of the Pleistocene behavior of the Scoresby Sund sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Jan Sverre Laberg et al., Department of Geology, University of Troms, N-9037 Troms, Norway; jan.laberg@uit.no. Co-authors: Matthias Forwick, Katrine Husum, and Tove Nielsen. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34784.1.


The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest ice sheet outside of Antarctica. The amount of water stored equals seven meters of global sea-level rise so that the future behavior of the ice sheet is of global concern. However, limited data on the past dynamics of the Ice Sheet exceeding the ice-core records have led to partly contradictory reconstructions. Whereas the Scoresby Sund sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet has been suggested to be stable and not much larger than at present during the peak Pleistocene glaciations, the southeastern sector of the Ice Sheet has been inferred to be much more dynamic. Jan Sverre Laberg, Matthias Forwick, Katrine Husum, and Tove Nielsen present seismic data showing that glaciogenic debris-flow deposits dominate the earlier than ca. 2.58 Ma succession of the Scoresby Sund Trough Mouth Fan on the East Greenland continental margin, suggesting much more frequent expansions of the Greenland Ice Sheet to the shelf break than found previously. This rapid response of the glacier to climate forcing indicates how dynamic is the glacier ice front and what one might expect of the glacier as the influences of climate warming become more pronounced.



Riverine mixing and fluvial iron formation: A new type of Precambrian biochemical sediment

Peir K. Pufahl et al., Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4P 2R6, Canada; peir.pufahl@acadiau.ca. Co-authors: Franco Pirajno, and Eric E. Hiatt. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34812.1.


The deposition of Precambrian iron formation is perhaps one of the least understood phenomena in the Earth sciences. This iron-rich sedimentary rock precipitated in some way from seawater and therefore holds important clues about the composition of the early oceans and atmosphere as well as the evolution of life. For example, the appearance of large, economically important iron formations reflects photosynthetic oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere approximately 2.5 billion-years-ago. In this paper, Peir Pufahl, with Franco Pirajno and Eric Hiatt, introduce a new type of iron formation, fluvial iron formation, which formed by mixing river discharge and seawater in coastal environments. Their results are significant because it shifts the locus of known iron formation precipitation processes into estuarine settings, providing a new window for understanding ocean-atmosphere development on the early Earth.



Kimberlite (U-Th)/He dating links surface erosion with lithospheric heating, thinning, and metasomatism in the southern African Plateau

Jessica R. Stanley et al., Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA; jessica.stanley@colorado.edu. Co-authors: Rebecca M. Flowers, and David R. Bell. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34797.1.


Documenting the response at Earth's surface to processes at depth is a central challenge in continental tectonics. Kimberlites are ultramafic magmas derived from a depth greater than 150 km, famous for bringing diamonds to the surface, as well as other information about the state of the lithosphere in the form of mantle xenoliths. Though less well studied, kimberlites also contain xenoliths from sedimentary units present at the time of eruption, which may have since eroded away. In this study, Jessica Stanley, Rebecca Flowers, and David Bell combine constraints from sedimentary xenoliths with cooling histories derived from apatite (U-Th)/He dating of kimberlites to constrain 1-2 km of Mesozoic erosion across the interior of South Africa. This erosion pulse is contemporaneous with heating, thinning, and metasomatism of the lithosphere below documented in the mantle xenoliths from these same pipes. Thus, the data presented here appear to record the surface response to active processes in the mantle.



Glacier slip and seismicity induced by surface melt

Peter L. Moore et al., Department of Geological and Atmospheric Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA; pmoore@iastate.edu. Co-authors: J. Paul Winberry, Neal R. Iverson, Knut A. Christianson, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, Miriam Jackson, Mark E. Mathison, and Denis Cohen. Posted online ahead of print 16 Oct. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34760.1.


Peter Moore and colleagues installed instruments for measuring seismic activity, sliding, and stress at the bottom of Engabreen, a glacier in northern Norway where a hydro-power facility allows human access to the glacier bed. The instruments measured pronounced glacier response to meltwater input during the onset of summer melt in May 2010 and 2011. This paper documents three separate episodes in which surface melt or precipitation introduced a pulse of water to the glacier bed and our instruments measured the glacier's response. The added water briefly enhanced glacier sliding as it pressurized cavities between the ice and underlying bedrock, locally lifting the ice. Enhanced sliding ceased, however, when the increased cavity size and connectivity allowed the water to be evacuated from the cavities more efficiently -- a few hours in each case. During each of these events, broadband seismometers in the tunnels a few meters below the glacier bed detected tilt, interpreted as a slight deformation of the rock as water pressurized basal cavities. Though measurements also suggest that enhanced sliding at the bed exploited a frictional interface, no seismic activity directly associated with this slip could be resolved.


###


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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/gsoa-gbg101813.php
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URC leads new USAID project to improve Haiti's health care system

URC leads new USAID project to improve Haiti's health care system


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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Oct-2013



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Contact: Elizabeth Ransom
eransom@urc-chs.com
301-941-8442
University Research Co., LLC





University Research Co., LLC (URC) is leading a new project in Haiti, a country with complex public health issues, including decentralization, HIV/AIDS, and cholera, to improve the population's health status. The three-year project, called Quality Health Services for Haiti (Services de Sant de Qualit pour Hati SSQH) North, is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). URC will support the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (Ministre de la Sant Publique et de la Population/MSPP) to increase the use and quality of its primary care and community services. Our partners include Abt Associates, Save the Children, and two Haitian organizations, the Foundation for Reproductive Health and Family Education (Fondation pour la Sant Reproductrice et l'Education Familiale) and the Centers for Development and Health (Centres pour le Dveloppement et la Sant.)


"URC is proud to have the opportunity, together with our partners, to support the MSPP in this important project and continue our long history of strengthening health care systems and improving health care quality around the world," said URC President Barbara Turner.


Working in Haiti's four northern departments, URC and its partners will work to increase Haitians' use of primary health care services, particularly in rural or isolated areas; improve the functionality of selected referral networks that link communities with health care facilities; facilitate sustainable delivery of quality health care services; and strengthen departmental health authorities' capacity to manage and monitor health care service delivery. The project will also support services related to gender-based violence and child protection at key sites.


Key project elements include quality improvement and results-based financing. Quality improvement improves the effectiveness, efficiency, and safety of health service delivery processes and systems, as well as human resource performance in delivering products and services. Quality improvement, a field in which URC has globally recognized expertise, generates pride in and ownership of better performance by empowering health providers to make changes and see results. Results-based financing, a pillar of the Ministry's strategy for improved health services, offers financial or non-monetary rewards for achieving more and better service delivery.


"Using these approaches and engaging local partners is vital for fostering country ownership and sustainability long after the project ends, which is the goal," commented URC Country Director Dr. Frantz Simeon, a Haitian medical doctor with a master's in public health and more than 30 years' experience in designing, managing, and evaluating multi-faceted public health programs. Dr. Simeon has managed several successful projects for URC, including a family health project in Benin and an injection safety program in Namibia. He will lead the project in Haiti as Chief of Party.


Haiti has made substantial progress in reconstructing and reorganizing its basic health care services following the devastating earthquake in 2010. Yet, nearly 40% of Haitians lack access to primary health care. Supporting the Ministry's primary health care services and strong referral network will help Haiti recover and rebuild.


URC has 15 years of experience managing programs in Haiti. Through the USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI), for example, URC is providing technical assistance to Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare and Research and implementing partners to improve the quality of services offered to vulnerable children and families affected by HIV. The effort is currently helping Haiti develop and pilot minimum care standards for organizations delivering services to these children and families. From 1981󈟋, URC pioneered the development of a practical, systematic approach to operations research on critical issues affecting primary health care services in Haiti and other developing countries and helped to build the capacity of Haitian NGOs to deliver health care services to mothers and children.


###


About URC


Established in 1965, URC is a global company dedicated to improving the quality of health care, social services, and health education worldwide through programs in over 45 countries. With its nonprofit affiliate, the Center for Human Services, URC is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and has more than 900 employees.




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URC leads new USAID project to improve Haiti's health care system


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Contact: Elizabeth Ransom
eransom@urc-chs.com
301-941-8442
University Research Co., LLC





University Research Co., LLC (URC) is leading a new project in Haiti, a country with complex public health issues, including decentralization, HIV/AIDS, and cholera, to improve the population's health status. The three-year project, called Quality Health Services for Haiti (Services de Sant de Qualit pour Hati SSQH) North, is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). URC will support the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (Ministre de la Sant Publique et de la Population/MSPP) to increase the use and quality of its primary care and community services. Our partners include Abt Associates, Save the Children, and two Haitian organizations, the Foundation for Reproductive Health and Family Education (Fondation pour la Sant Reproductrice et l'Education Familiale) and the Centers for Development and Health (Centres pour le Dveloppement et la Sant.)


"URC is proud to have the opportunity, together with our partners, to support the MSPP in this important project and continue our long history of strengthening health care systems and improving health care quality around the world," said URC President Barbara Turner.


Working in Haiti's four northern departments, URC and its partners will work to increase Haitians' use of primary health care services, particularly in rural or isolated areas; improve the functionality of selected referral networks that link communities with health care facilities; facilitate sustainable delivery of quality health care services; and strengthen departmental health authorities' capacity to manage and monitor health care service delivery. The project will also support services related to gender-based violence and child protection at key sites.


Key project elements include quality improvement and results-based financing. Quality improvement improves the effectiveness, efficiency, and safety of health service delivery processes and systems, as well as human resource performance in delivering products and services. Quality improvement, a field in which URC has globally recognized expertise, generates pride in and ownership of better performance by empowering health providers to make changes and see results. Results-based financing, a pillar of the Ministry's strategy for improved health services, offers financial or non-monetary rewards for achieving more and better service delivery.


"Using these approaches and engaging local partners is vital for fostering country ownership and sustainability long after the project ends, which is the goal," commented URC Country Director Dr. Frantz Simeon, a Haitian medical doctor with a master's in public health and more than 30 years' experience in designing, managing, and evaluating multi-faceted public health programs. Dr. Simeon has managed several successful projects for URC, including a family health project in Benin and an injection safety program in Namibia. He will lead the project in Haiti as Chief of Party.


Haiti has made substantial progress in reconstructing and reorganizing its basic health care services following the devastating earthquake in 2010. Yet, nearly 40% of Haitians lack access to primary health care. Supporting the Ministry's primary health care services and strong referral network will help Haiti recover and rebuild.


URC has 15 years of experience managing programs in Haiti. Through the USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI), for example, URC is providing technical assistance to Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare and Research and implementing partners to improve the quality of services offered to vulnerable children and families affected by HIV. The effort is currently helping Haiti develop and pilot minimum care standards for organizations delivering services to these children and families. From 1981󈟋, URC pioneered the development of a practical, systematic approach to operations research on critical issues affecting primary health care services in Haiti and other developing countries and helped to build the capacity of Haitian NGOs to deliver health care services to mothers and children.


###


About URC


Established in 1965, URC is a global company dedicated to improving the quality of health care, social services, and health education worldwide through programs in over 45 countries. With its nonprofit affiliate, the Center for Human Services, URC is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and has more than 900 employees.




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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.




Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/urcl-uln102113.php
Tags: The Walking Dead Season 4   Rashad Johnson   lsu football   made in america   Hugh Douglas  

Budget deal thwarts Sarah Palin’s secret plan to impeach Pres. Obama (Americablog)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/334508786?client_source=feed&format=rss
Related Topics: Ronan Farrow   What Does Government Shutdown Mean   Andre Drummond   Placenta   evelyn lozada  

Could this newly discovered asteroid hit Earth?


NASA has gone out of its way to reassure the public that reports of a massive asteroid headed toward Earth are greatly exaggerated.


In a post entitled “Reality Check,” NASA says that the giant asteroid, first spotted by Ukranian scientists, poses almost zero risk of impacting the Earth.


Specifically, NASA says the odds are about 1 in 63,000 that the asteroid, named TV135, will impact the Earth. On the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, it’s listed as a 1 out of possible 10, or “no unusual level of danger."


"To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent," Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "This is a relatively new discovery. With more observations, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce, or rule out entirely, any impact probability for the foreseeable future."


Yeomans is the world’s preeminent “asteroid hunter,” and one of his regular duties is stepping up to shoot down unfounded hysteria about asteroids.


He was forced to speak up after Russian Deputy Premier Dmitry Rogozin caused a stir this week when he wrote on his Twitter account, "A 400-metre asteroid is threatening to blow up the Earth."


In an August interview with Yahoo News, Yeomans explained that NASA typically spots a potentially dangerous asteroid up to 100 years before it would potentially hit the Earth.


TV135 is estimated to be about 400 meters in diameter. For some context, Yeomans says that an asteroid about 30 meters in diameter could cause real damage upon impact. But that’s still far from an extinction-level event. The asteroid that most scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs is believed to have been 6 miles, or nearly 10,000 meters, in diameter.


Yeomans says there are about 1,000 “Near Earth Objects” in the galaxy that would cause catastrophic damage if they impacted the Earth and that NASA has already identified an estimated 95 percent of them. In other words, the chance that a giant, lethal asteroid would suddenly manifest itself just outside of Earth’s orbit is infinitesimally small.


That said, NASA believes we’re technically due for a major asteroid impact. By their best estimates, a major impact has happened on Earth about once every 100 million years.


But even if scientists do spot a giant asteroid headed our way, they are multiple solutions to the problem.


First, Yeomans says, we would simply launch a spacecraft or rocket into the asteroid to alter its trajectory. Even changing an asteroid or comet’s path by just a few inches would be enough to ensure that it missed Earth by a wide margin so long as the course was altered far enough out in space.


In fact, given enough notice, it may not even take a forceful impact to send an asteroid out of harm’s way. In 2012, MIT students said that if they could spot a giant asteroid 20 years before it reached Earth, simply spraying the asteroid with paintballs would get the job done .


And in a true emergency scenario where an asteroid was too close for its course to be altered, there are still options. In the early 1960s, students at MIT suggested that the best course of action would be to launch a nuclear missile into an asteroid, causing it to break up. If any fragments of the asteroid still made it to Earth, they’d be greatly reduced in size after traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere, and the impact would be minimal.



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/no--a-giant-asteroid-is-not-about-to-hit-the-earth-182622623.html
Category: Malcom Floyd   VMAs   Myla Sinanaj  

Alt-week 10.19.13: A bird's eye view of Grasshopper, cyber poaching and why you probably need more sleep


Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.


Altweek A bird's eye view of Grasshopper, cyber poaching and why you probably need more sleep


Rockets. Just the word sounds exciting. Rock-et. SpaceX's vertical-take-off-and-landing Grasshopper is how many of us here at Engadget vicariously live our unfulfilled engineering dreams, so any chance to see it from more angles is welcome. There's also some less welcome news this week, and a new take on why you need more sleep. This is alt-week.



We know that sometimes the subject matter we cover in this feature can be a little, how shall we say... mind bending? But really, our goal is to bring you stuff that's just down right awesome. So, with that in mind let us share four words: Grasshopper rocket hexacopter video. The SpaceX VTOL rocket was captured on video from a mid-air copter-cam during a recent test launch, and frankly, if you're still reading these words, and not watching it -- we'd love to know why??



It's nothing new that to see technology that was meant for good, to be subverted and used for evil. What's a little more sinister, is when the technology in question is specifically designed to protect life -- endangered species. GPS tags and collars used for the benevolent tracking and monitoring Indian tigers have become targets for "cyber poachers." Worse, is that the criminals aren't even having to head out into the wild and seek out the devices; the poachers just need access to the email accounts that receive the location data. One specific case involves the Panna Tiger Reserve in India. Fortunately, the efforts of the hackers were thwarted by some server blocking, and GPS data encryption would have provided one last hurdle, but the attempt provided a chilling warning of how easily best intentions could go awry. Since the incident, the reserve has made sure officials stay near of the Tiger at all times, with even more technology -- drones -- being deployed in January as an extra precaution.



Sleep, if you never seem to get enough, it might be time to put one end of the candle out. Or... it could just be that you've been doing so much thinking, that your brain's not had chance to wash out the mental "trash" all that contemplation's left behind. That's according to new research at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, which suggests that sleep serves -- at least in part -- as a way for the brain to remove "waste" left from the taxes of being awake and alert. Once we've dozed off, some cells in the brain shrink, allowing more space for liquid to pass and flush out toxins. This is something that apparently can't be done while we're cognizant. The findings also chime with what's known about conditions such as Alzheimer's that typically show high levels of damaged proteins in the brain. At the very least it might explain why you don't always get quite as restful a sleep after a particularly mentally-taxing day. Wake up feeling sprightly and fresh every morning? We're saying nothing...


Seen any other far-out articles that you'd like considered for Alt-week? Working on a project or research that's too cool to keep to yourself? Drop us a line at alt [at] engadget [dot] com.


Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/19/alt-week-10-19-13/?ncid=rss_truncated
Category: Paula Patton   Bobby Cannavale   Grand Theft Auto 5 cheats   Harry Styles   irina shayk  

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Jack Johnson Rocks Mellow Set at L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre: Concert Review




The Bottom Line


Jack Johnson delivers a crowd-pleasing set at an intimate show.




Venue


Saturday, Oct. 19 (Orpheum Theatre)




Jack Johnson brought his mellow vibes to an appreciative, sold-out crowd Saturday night at downtown Los Angeles' Orpheum Theatre as part of his From Here to Now to You tour.



The intimate show -- the venue holds just over 2,000 people -- found the Hawaii-based surfer-singer-songwriter mixing his charting singles with several songs from his new album (also titledFrom Here to Now to You), which became his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 upon its release last month. Johnson had an easygoing banter with the crowd; at one point, he even said he'd take requests -- and many in the audience were happy to oblige, shouting out their favorite titles.


STORY: Jack Johnson Scores Fourth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart


Clad in flip-flops, jeans and a T-shirt, Johnson kicked off the show with quieter, solo performances of "Do You Remember" and "Good People" but by the end of the night was rocking out with his band to "Mudfootball" and "Staple It Together." On the latter, bass player Merlo Podlewski even performed a crowd-pleasing rap, just one of many musical styles to make cameos during the two-hour set. While much of the audience remained in their seats for the first several songs, Johnson got them on their feet for the remainder of the show by joking that "everybody in the balcony area was already dancing."


Among his more well-known songs, the singer drew cheers when he played his debut single, 2002's "Flake"; "Bubble Toes" (a mash-up with Steve Miller Band's "The Joker"); and "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" (another mash-up, with The Cars' "Just What I Needed"). Before performing "Good People" -- which Johnson called his "most cynical song" -- he shared that he wrote the tune after being "bummed out" about a reality TV show production moving into his North Shore neighborhood. Asked by the star to write a song for the show -- he didn't reveal his true feelings to her-- he penned "Good People." "It didn't make it in the show, but I don't think she'd have been happy about it," he said, referring to lyrics like "You win, it's your show, now/So what's it gonna be/'Cause people will tune in/How many train wrecks do we need to see?"


Among the new songs he performed were a solo version of "I Got You," the lead single off his new album, along with "Radiate," "Washing Dishes" and "Shot Reverse Shot." In a nod to his Hawaiian heritage, Johnson showed off his ukulele skills on "Breakdown," but props also must be given to bandmember Zach Gill, who entertained with no fewer than five instruments throughout the night, including a piano, keyboard, xylophone, accordion and harmonica.


During one amusing (and endearing) moment, Johnson played a song he said once served as the outgoing message on his family's answering machine. The lyrics: "I got a girl/her name is Kimmy/She likes to do the shimmy shimmy shimmy/She's got a man, his name is Jack/They were gone, but they'll be back/You know what to do, please know the rules/Just leave your name and number too/We'll call you back or maybe or not/'Cause Jack is lazy, but Kimmy's got/good, good manners." He then earned more laughs by playing a message he once left for his wife that he dubbed a "get out of the doghouse" tune.


During the encore, Johnson surprised fans with an appearance by Hawaiian reggae/soul singer Paula Fuga, a former tourmate with whom he's collaborated many times, to perform on several songs, including "Turn Your Love" and "Better Together." The two also showed off their exceptional whistling skills on "Country Road."


He closed out his show with "Home," from the new album, which he told the crowd was written after he excitedly returned home after one tour only to find his garden overrun with weeds and his attic infiltrated by birds -- and then he couldn't wait to go back on tour. "It doesn't matter where your home is; home is where your family is," he told the crowd. "This is home, and thank you for making us feel home."


STORY: Jack Johnson, Jake Bugg on Tap for Public Television's 'Front and Center'


If there is a more laid-back recording artist than Johnson, it has to be his Toronto-based opening act Bahamas (who also joined Johnson on a few songs). Frontman Afie Jurvanen, who previously was part of Feist's touring band, charmed the audience with his sense of humor: At one point, he joked that he wanted to introduce the band -- and then proceeded to introduce them to one another; before performing the melancholy "Never Again," he quipped that it was a song he "tried to sell to R. Kelly, but he didn't want it."


The group's half-hour set also included such songs as "Hockey Teeth," from their first album, 2009's Pink Strat (the song, written as a loving tribute to a woman in his life who had less-than-perfect teeth, drew appreciative laughs from the crowd), and "I Got You Babe" off his second (and most recent) album, 2012's Barchords.


Set list
Do You Remember
Good People
As I Was Saying
Washing Dishes
Taylor
Flake
Tomorrow Morning
Bubble Toes/The Joker
At or With Me/Crosstown Traffic
Wasting Time
If I Had Eyes

Inaudible Melodies
Radiate
Don't Believe a Thing I Say (with Bahamas)
Breakdown (with Bahamas)

Tape Deck
Banana Pancakes
Shot Reverse Shot
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing/Just What I Needed
Staple It Together
Mudfootball


Encore
I Got You
Country Road (with Paula Fuga)
Turn Your Love (with Paula Fuga)
Better Together (with Paula Fuga)
Home (with Paula Fuga and Bahamas)


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/music/~3/6JqeYvEGds8/story01.htm
Category: gucci mane   Erwin Schrödinger  

Fitbug Orb fitness tracker priced at $50, can go up to six months between charges

The Fitbug Orb seems like a veritable shot across Fitbit's bow. This latest fitness wearable is priced at $50 and can go six months between charges, matching the Fitbit Zip's longevity and undercutting its price by $10. You aren't tied to wearing it on your wrist either, as you can place the Orb ...


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/bzCdiLHSqzc/
Tags: Maria de Villota   sons of anarchy   boardwalk empire   Ezra Is A   Farmers Almanac  

JPMorgan Strikes Tentative $13B Mortgages Settlement





JP Morgan Chase & Company headquarters in New York.



Emmanuel Dunand /AFP/Getty Images


JP Morgan Chase & Company headquarters in New York.


Emmanuel Dunand /AFP/Getty Images


In what would be the largest such settlement in U.S. history, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reportedly reached a tentative deal with the Justice Department that would see the bank pay $13 billion to settle civil charges related to wrongdoing by some of its units just before and during the housing crisis.


The deal, sources tell news outlets including NPR, would not absolve JPMorgan from possible criminal liability.


Word of the tentative agreement emerged around 3 p.m. ET. Saturday. We posted when the news broke and followed with background and more details.


Our original post and subsequent updates follow. Scroll down and "read up" if you want to see how the story developed.


Update at 5 p.m. ET. Sources Tells NPR About The Tentative Deal:


Two sources familiar with the talks tells NPR Justice correspondent Carrie Johnson that the tentative agreement was reached Friday night and that the language of the deal is still being written. But the sources said the general outlines of what's been reported are correct.



Update at 4:30 p.m. ET. The Accusations:


The Federal Housing Finance Agency, as Bloomberg notes, "accused JPMorgan and its affiliates of making false statements and omitting material facts in selling $33 billion in mortgage bonds to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Sept. 7, 2005, through Sept. 19, 2007. The regulator said executives at JPMorgan, Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns Cos., which were acquired by JPMorgan in 2008, knowingly misrepresented the quality of the loans underlying the bonds, among other things, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan."


Update at 4 p.m. ET. No Release From Criminal Liability:


"The tentative deal does not release the bank from criminal liability, a factor that had been a major sticking point in the discussions," according to Reuters' source for the story.


Update at 3:45 p.m. ET. "Moving Closer" And Some Details:


The New York Times characterizes the news this way: JPMorgan and Justice "are moving closer to a $13 billion settlement." The Times adds that:




"The bank would be expected to pay about $9 billion in fines, according to a person briefed on the negotiations. JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, is also likely to spend $4 billion in relief for struggling homeowners, another person briefed on the talks said."




Update at 3:35 p.m. ET. Settlement Would Be A Record:


ABC News had previously noted that the settlement was expected to be the "largest-ever payment in the history of financial regulation," topping the "previous record when BP paid out $4.5 billion following criminal charges related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill." Fox Business calls it the "largest-ever settlement involving a U.S. company."


Update at 3:20 p.m. ET. Deal Reportedly Reached Friday:


According to CNBC, "Attorney General Eric Holder and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, along with two lawyers, struck the deal Friday after the market close."


Bloomberg News reports that "the settlement amount, which increased from $11 billion to $13 billion during negotiations [Friday] night, the person said, includes a $4 billion accord with the Federal Housing Finance Agency over the bank's sale of mortgage-backed securities."


3:08 p.m. ET. We're seeing multiple reports that:


— "J.P. Morgan has reached a $13 billion tentative settlement with the Justice Department." (The Wall Street Journal)


— "JPMorgan Chase has reached a $13 billion tentative deal with the Justice Department, said a person familiar with the negotiations." (CNBC)


— "JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reached a tentative resolution of all civil mortgage-related matters with the U.S. Department of Justice, a person familiar with settlement negotiations said." (Bloomberg News)


— "JPMorgan Chase & Co has reached a tentative $13 billion deal with the U.S. Justice Department to settle a range of mortgage issues, a source close to the talks said on Saturday. The settlement does not include any release from criminal liability for the bank, the source said." (Reuters)


NPR's Business Desk is working the story. We'll update as things develop.


At $13 billion, the settlement would be about $2 billion more than recent reports had predicted. As The Associated Press has written, JPMorgan had been:




"Said to be discussing an $11 billion national settlement with the Department of Justice over mortgage-backed securities. The securities lost value after a bubble in the housing market burst, helping to bring on the financial crisis."




Last month, as we wrote, the bank "agreed to acknowledge that it violated federal securities laws and [to] pay $920 million in penalties assessed by regulators in the U.S. and U.K. to settle charges related to the huge trading losses racked up by its London traders last year."


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/19/237762312/reports-jpmorgan-reaches-13-billion-mortgages-settlement?ft=1&f=
Tags: powerball   Sleepy Hollow   Phillip Lim Target   Alison Pill   Sloane Stephens  

Hitches On Health Exchanges Hinder Launch Of Insurance Co-op





Maryland's Evergreen Health Co-op will eventually be owned by its policyholders. For now, the co-op is scrambling to find customers after the state's online health exchange got off to a rocky start.



iStockphoto.com

Nothing is more important for a startup burning through cash than winning customers and revenue.


So problems with the Affordable Care Act's online marketplaces, also known as exchanges, aren't just an inconvenience for the likes of Evergreen Health Co-op. They're a threat.


"It's slowly getting better. Some people have gotten to the enrollment stage before the site freezes," says Evergreen's frustrated CEO, Dr. Peter Beilenson. "Once enrollments start occurring, we still don't expect to get notification of that from the exchange until December, which makes planning for deployment of resources challenging."


Maryland-based Evergreen is one of nearly two dozen nonprofit insurers created by the health act. Called co-ops because they will be owned by the policyholders, they're supposed to add competition and lower prices for medical coverage.


But they can't do either if customers don't know they exist. Maryland's insurance portal, intended to let shoppers compare plans and buy coverage, barely worked the first few days after it opened Oct. 1. When it did, it left Evergreen off the list of options, Beilenson said.


That got fixed. But even Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat and an enthusiastic supporter of the health law, says system flaws will take another month or six weeks to smooth out.


Meanwhile Evergreen is paying staff, renting offices and hiring doctors and has only until March under the health law's open enrollment period to recruit most clients for 2014.


With the online portal balking, Evergreen has already altered its tactics to find more customers offline. "It has clearly changed our marketing strategy to some extent," Beilenson said.


Instead of relying so heavily on finding individual customers one at a time through the Web site, Evergreen is working harder on small-business accounts that can deliver dozens of subscribers in one deal. Ads mailed to thousands of employers produced more than 100 responses in only a day, Beilenson said.


At least Beilenson can call Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Maryland's health secretary, when he wants to complain or get something fixed. One day last week he talked five times to Sharfstein, who Beilenson says has been "very responsive."


Other co-ops are unlikely have the same kind of advantage. Maryland is one of a minority of states in charge of its own Obamacare software. Co-ops in Arizona, South Carolina and elsewhere rely on the federal government's healthcare.gov site, which by many accounts is the most dysfunctional of all.


"We continue to have significant challenges," says Kathleen Oestreich, CEO of Meritus Health Partners, Arizona's co-op, which is sold through the federal portal. "Some people are expressing some frustration but not across the board by any means. Many people understand it is a big system and will take a bit to make it work."


Meritus is trying to take more advantage of brokers and face-to-face meetings with potential customers.


"Brokers are showing great interest," she said. Still, two weeks after the federal marketplace was supposed to open, she added, "we wish the enrollment had really begun in any material way."


What many describe as one of the most successful state-run portals, Kentucky's, "has corrected some of the initial log jam and we are hearing reports that things are running smoother," says Janie Miller, CEO of the Kentucky Health Cooperative. "We are excited and pumped but don't have actual enrollee counts yet."


Nobody is pushing the panic button. March 31, the end of enrollment, is several months away.


Co-ops are well financed with federal loans. Evergreen holds enough capital to be in good shape even if it doesn't reach what Beilenson calls "self-sustaining" membership of 15,000 or 20,000 in the first year, he said.


But with few confirmed customers so far and no revenue, Evergreen and its peers have much more at stake in the Obamacare software than their established competitors.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/16/235337538/hitches-on-health-exchanges-hinder-launch-of-insurance-co-ops?ft=1&f=1001
Category: Red Sox Schedule   Presidents Cup Streaker   nbc  

Will Google ever bring Android and ChromeOS together?

AndroidWhen Google acquired Android in 2005 and subsequently unveiled it in 2007, there was no such thing as ChromeOS yet. Google’s entire OS effort was on Android, and separately the company worked on the Chrome browser for desktop and mobile operating systems. 

Over the last year we’ve started to see Google have success with ChromeOS in the notebook computer market. Android and ChromeOS are both based on Linux, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. ChromeOS is a very thin client, almost everything is done via the browser.

On a personal level, I’ve now gotten to the point where I’d rather consume content on a touch screen device. I prefer swiping my finger on a screen to navigate a website rather than being forced to use a trackpad. This tells me all computers will be touchscreen soon, just like all mobile devices already are.

(UPDATE: A few people interpret this to mean I'm suggesting keyboards or mice/trackpads will be taken away.  I didn't think this clarification would be required considering some Windows machines and the Chromebook Pixel have already introduced touch as an added input mechanism without taking anything away, but apparently it is necessary to make explicitly clear.)

So this raises the question — why would Google want to maintain two operating systems down the road? I don’t think they want this. And I’m trying to get my head around the possible solutions.

read more


    






Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/bVJxDm4lP64/story01.htm
Related Topics: Sleepy Hollow   Lee Thompson Young   Rafael Caro Quintero  

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Fujifilm XQ1: Fuji's New Tiny Cam Packs Tons of Power in Your Pocket

Fujifilm XQ1: Fuji's New Tiny Cam Packs Tons of Power in Your Pocket

When Fujifilm announced its beautiful pocket camera, the XF1 last year, we were genuinely psyched, which made the camera's disappointing handling even more of a bummer. With the XQ1, Fuji has fixed some of the XF1's annoyances and packed in the same hot image sensor that's on the badass X20. Now we're talking.

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Source: http://gizmodo.com/fujifilm-xq1-fujis-new-tiny-cam-packs-tons-of-power-i-1447508427
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