Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Crime scene detectives investigate the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11 p.m. Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The New York Police Department said a suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, a Chinese immigrant, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in the stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A crime scene detective leaps up the steps at the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11p.m. Saturday. The working-class neighborhood is home to many Chinese immigrants. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Crime scene specialists work at the scene of a fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at the Sunset Park, Brooklyn home, far right. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Medical Examiner Transport personnel prepare to place a loaded body bag into their vehicle after exiting the residence of a crime scene in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 where five people, including a toddler, were stabbed to death in New York. Emergency responders found three of the victims dead at the residence just before 11 p.m. Saturday. Two others were taken to Brooklyn hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese immigrant was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in a stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home.
The suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, implicated himself in the stabbings late Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood, police said. Chief of Department Phil Banks said the victims "were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife."
Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 1-year-old William Zhuo. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were taken to hospitals, where they also were pronounced dead.
Chen is a cousin of the children's father and had been staying at the home for the past week or so, Banks said. He came to the United States from China in 2004 and seemingly struggled to make it, Banks said.
"Ever since he came to this country, everybody seems to be doing better than him," he said.
On Saturday night, Chen had apparently been acting in such a way that concerned Li, Banks said. She tried to call her husband, who wasn't home, but couldn't reach him.
Banks said Li called her mother-in-law in China, who also was unsuccessful in reaching her son. The mother-in-law reached out to her daughter, who lives in the neighborhood, Banks said.
She and her husband came to the house and banged on the door, then called 911. Officers in the area investigating another matter responded, Banks said.
"It's a scene you'll never forget," he said. The victims had wounds in their necks and torsos.
Chen was in custody and wasn't immediately available to comment. He also faces counts of assault on a police officer, which happened while he was being processed, and resisting arrest, Banks said.
Bob Madden, who lives nearby, was out walking his dog when he saw a man being escorted from the building by police. He was barefoot, wearing jeans, and "he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said.
Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, said the man had recently moved to the area and had been staying with different people.
Fire department spokesman Jim Long said emergency workers responded just before 11 p.m. to a 911 call from a person stabbed at the residence in Sunset Park, a working-class neighborhood of adjoining two-story brick buildings with a large Chinese community.
Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths.
"I always see (the kids) running around here," Chan said. "They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming."
Former President Bill Clinton prepares to speak at a campaign event, "Putting Jobs First", for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, left, in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Former President Bill Clinton prepares to speak at a campaign event, "Putting Jobs First", for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, left, in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, at a "Putting Jobs First" event in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, centerleft, during a "Putting Jobs First" events in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, right, at a "Putting Jobs First" event in Dale City, Va., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Sarah, of Alexandria, Va., who preferred not to give her last name, adds a button to her hat while waiting in line to see former President Bill Clinton and Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at an election campaign event "Putting Jobs First" in Dale City, Virginia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Fanaticism is fueling conservative voters who could threaten Democrat Terry McAuliffe's political chances, former President Bill Clinton warned Sunday as he joined his longtime buddy's campaign for Virginia governor.
With little more than a week before Nov. 5's Election Day, McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli each have sought to energize their strongest supporters, by inspiration or fear. McAuliffe has opened a lead in polling and is heavily outspending Cuccinelli on television ads, but turnout is expected to be low and the result could be decided by a few thousand votes.
"Political extremism does have one redeeming virtue in terms of pure politics," Clinton said here at a packed high school auditorium.
"If you can get somebody into a fanatic frame of mind," Clinton said, then they will vote because they are convinced the deck is stacked against them.
It was a shift in roles. For decades, it has been McAuliffe championing the personal and political futures of Bill Clinton and, later, his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now, the former president is here to pitch in during the campaign against Republican Ken Cuccinelli during its final week.
"Terry's gotten so good on the stump, I don't think he needs me anymore," Clinton said to laughter at the pair's first stop in Dale City.
Clinton planned other stops throughout the state with his longtime pal and fundraiser during the coming day. Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is considered a strong contender for 2016's presidential nomination, used her first political event after stepping down as secretary of state to endorse McAuliffe earlier this month.
Bill Clinton predicted that Cuccinelli's supporters, who are deeply conservative and align to the tea party, would vote and he urged Democrats to be just as motivated.
"Just remember, the people who aren't here today, who go to the other fella's rally, they will be there on Election Day," he said.
That "other fella," as Clinton called Cuccinelli, sought to turn one of the Democratic Party's stars into another way to build enthusiasm among his conservative supporters. Even before the pair arrived at a veterans' hall near Washington, Cuccinelli's campaign had sent reporters a memo recounting the years of Clinton-McAuliffe collaboration for Democrats.
Yet what Republicans called "the McAuliffe-Clinton baggage" — questions over the Clintons' finances, Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern and his subsequent impeachment — seems to have faded for many voters.
And between Clinton's first and second stops for McAuliffe, Cuccinelli organized a conference call with reporters to again raise separate questions about McAuliffe's investment with a man who has pleaded guilty to stealing the identities of the terminally ill.
Cuccinelli has acknowledged the investments were not against the law but also said McAuliffe needs to explain the details to voters. He also wants to know why the investment did not appear on McAuliffe's financial disclosure forms when he ran for governor in 2009.
"I'm tripping over myself to be as open as humanly possible with the voters of Virginia, and Terry McAuliffe is taking every step possible to hide, to bury and obfuscate and lie, let's face it," Cuccinelli said. "He knows how dirty it is."
McAuliffe says he was a "passive investor" and was never aware of the details. Much of what Cuccinelli raised had been out there for weeks, campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin said.
Clinton and McAuliffe's four-day swing was sending them to stops in Democratic-leaning parts of the state.
"In the parlance of my native state and my culture, I am fully aware that I am just preaching to the saved," as Clinton put it.
But they're not always reliable parishioners.
In 2008, 75 percent of the state's registered voters turned out during the heat of a presidential campaign, and 2012's campaign drew 72 percent. Obama won both campaigns.
But in 2009, that number was 40 percent and Republican Bob McDonnell won.
To help inspire turnout, Clinton and McAuliffe spent almost an hour at a Red Lobster restaurant near Richmond to meet with a largely black crowd who ate after attending church services. The pair signed autographs, posed for cellphone photos, snacked on biscuits — and came away with voters pledging their support.
Darlene Gilchrist-Dailey of Richmond said the Clinton stop cemented her vote for McAuliffe.
"I was planning on voting for him anyway but having President Clinton and his wife endorse him has even made it a stronger commitment for me to get out there and vote for him," she said.
Bill Clinton's approval ratings have improved since he left the White House in 2001 and voters have not lost interest in Hillary Rodham Clinton since she stepped down as President Barack Obama's top diplomat earlier this year.
Every step Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken since leaving the State Department has been examined for its 2016 implications. And Bill Clinton's return to full-time campaigning — even if for only a few days — was sure to add to speculation about whether a Clinton could call the White House home again in 2017.
Democrats have been relentless in painting Cuccinelli — who is known best outside the state as the first to challenge President Barack Obama's health care law — as a political ideologue and someone who is unwilling to compromise.
Clinton happily added his voice to that message.
"If we become ideological, then we're blind to evidence," said Clinton, who as president sometimes bucked his party and worked with Republicans. "We can only hear people who already agree with us. We think we know everything right now, and we have nothing to learn from anybody."
___
Associated Press writer Steve Szkotak in Richmond contributed to this report.
___
Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is under fire for possible mishandling of the healthcare.gov website.
Photo by Jim Bourg/Reuters
Washington think tanks, your moment has arrived! Healthcare.gov is a mess and someone must chronicle exactly what went wrong. The press is trying, of course, but we also must cover the aftermath—the parade of predictable behavior that obscures more than it illuminates. Did you see the hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday? Despite the best efforts of Chairman Fred Upton, between the grandstanding, confused questions, and the witness fog machine, it's a wonder anyone got out alive. Meanwhile, Republicans are pointing fingers, placing blame, and otherwise showing disgust that a program that they have tried to kill is being run so badly. (Perhaps they're jealous that the administration is better at undermining Obamacare than they are.) Administration officials, on the other hand, are caught between covering their backsides, spouting plumes of happy talk, and hiring more people to collect the springs and sprockets from the launch pad where the whole thing went kaput. On Friday, officials in charge of the #techsurge said that healthcare.gov would be running smoothly by late November, two months after the launch.
Here's why a controlled witch hunt is needed: This episode is about much more than a website. That’s true with respect to health care, as Ezra Klein points out, and it’s also true because there are big national issues at stake that have nothing to do with the specific issues of sickness and health. Can government do big things? Sen. Lamar Alexander famously said during the health care debates, "We don't do comprehensive well"—meaning that any law that is big and complicated will fail. Is that right?
Alternatively, have partisanship and gridlock created a situation where small flaws in a law can't be fixed through tweaking legislation because such legislation can never pass? Is there something about complex technology that confuses the bureaucracy? Is the procurement system nuts? Does the political nature of all administration activity mean that no one is capable of reporting that the launch of a key element of the president's signature legislation is going to throw a rod? Some of the states seem to be doing just fine. Is that because they are smaller enterprises or because the people working on state health exchanges have more flexibility?
What's needed is expertise, patience, and methodical reasoning. These have long since been banned from congressional hearings.
These are sloppy questions; experts can come up with better ones. But whatever questions are asked should be broad and sloppy, because right now everyone is scheduled to leave this drama with the answer they want. The experience will confirm their pre-existing views. That's no good as a matter of logic, but it's also a waste of rich material. This crack-up is a genuine disaster—it is expensive, it is worrying people who need and want insurance, and it is a huge waste of time. But it also provides rich material for a case study about the effectiveness of government.
Precision in this hunt is the key. Usually in investigations you need subpoena power. That doesn't seem to be an issue. (Though I'd still put a hand on the shredders at Health and Human Services and the White House just to see if they're warm.) In this case, what's needed is some expertise, patience, and methodical reasoning. These attributes have long since been banned from congressional hearings. There are nevertheless people in Washington think tanks who will be excited to think through these matters.
A precise example of the kind of thinking that's required is in David Auerbach's wonderful deconstruction of yesterday's hearing. Talking about the watery responses from the witnesses, Auerbach writes, "They don’t seem to understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable bugs, and worse, they don’t seem to know that there is a difference." The point is that there's a distinction between garden-variety problems and catastrophic problems that you could either have seen coming or for which you should have been on guard because they’re so damaging. So, using that same fine screen: What problems here are the normal ones you'd have in any big enterprise, what are the problems that are the result of unique one-time-only stupidity, and what are the problems that result from this being a government rather than private enterprise?
This project should be one everyone loves. Only the most devout libertarian doesn't want the government to do anything. Those who want a smaller government should still want it to operate efficiently. Liberals, and people like the president, who believe in smart government, should be pushing hard for answers. If they're not interested in a thorough deconstruction of what went wrong for policy reasons, they should care for political ones. Healthcare.gov is now a very good excuse for anyone who wants to oppose an activist federal government. All a lawmaker has to say is that they don't want the same government that ran healthcare.gov in charge of X, where X is anything you want to see stopped in its tracks.
Right now, no one in this drama is trying to learn from the mistake. That's understandable, but it also guarantees that the mistake will be repeated.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Banners that suddenly cropped around Tehran in the past week depict an American diplomat dressed in a jacket and tie, while under the negotiating table he is wearing military pants and pointing a gun at an Iranian envoy.
The anti-American images were ordered taken down Saturday by Tehran authorities. But they made their point.
It was another salvo by hard-liners who are opposed to President Hassan Rouhani's pursuit of better ties with Washington and worried that Iran could make unnecessary concessions in its nuclear program in exchange for relief from Western sanctions.
The banners and posters were something of a warm-up to the main event: Rouhani's critics are planning major anti-U.S. rallies — and amped-up "Death to America" chants — on the Nov. 4 anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution.
Anti-American murals have long been part of the urban landscape in Iran, and include images of the Statue of Liberty transformed into a creepy skeleton and bombs raining down from the Stars and Stripes. The storming of the U.S. Embassy is marked every year with protests outside the compound's brick walls.
Now, however, the images reflect internal divisions in Iran and suggest more intrigue ahead.
Rouhani's groundbreaking overtures to the U.S. appear to have the backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This means that — at least for the moment — he has the ultimate political cover to try to reach a nuclear deal and perhaps find other ways to cross the 34-year diplomatic no man's land between the countries.
However, the criticism and protests by hard-line resisters, led by the Revolutionary Guard, are as much directed at Rouhani's government as they are intended as a message for the supreme leader.
The Guard and others know that Khamenei does not want to risk an open confrontation that could sow further discord in Iran. The subtext of the posters and banners: More pressure could come if Rouhani's government is perceived as moving too fast toward concessions when nuclear talks resume next week in Geneva with the U.S. and other world powers.
The signs had an ad-agency quality that is rare compared with the usual anti-American fare of simple fliers and hand-lettered placards.
"American Honesty," read one in Farsi and slightly mangled English, showing the U.S. negotiator with the gun under the table.
Another depicted an American negotiator in a suit, a black attack dog by his side. The third one showed an open hand facing the open claws of what appeared to be an eagle, the symbol of the U.S.
On Sunday, with most of the images taken down, new posters popped up around Tehran. They contained just one sentence, in Farsi: "We don't oppress and don't allow to be oppressed."
The high production values of the banners and posters suggest possible connections to the powerful propaganda machinery of well-funded groups such as the Revolutionary Guard or its nationwide paramilitary network, known as the Basij.
Mohsen Pirhadi, head of Basij's Tehran branch, said he ordered the posters put up, but gave no further details on the designers or financial backers.
"These posters were in line with the interests of the (ruling) system," the Bahar newspaper quoted him as saying Saturday.
A day earlier, protesters trampled posters of Wendy Sherman, the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator with Iran, who said earlier this month that past experience suggests "deception is part of the DNA" of the nuclear talks. Iran's hard-line media, however, added "Iranian" to the quote and stirred outrage.
"Our people have seen nothing but dishonesty, deception of public opinion, betrayal and back-stabbing by Americans during the past years. ... Therefore, there is no way they can trust American promises and deceiving smiles," hard-line politician Hamid Reza Taraqi told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Israel and others suspicious of Iran have used similar language to question Rouhani's sincerity.
A conservative lawmaker, Hamid Rasaei, decried the order to take down the posters and banners. "Why is a group seeking to erase the 34-year-old honor of the Iranian nation?" he told Parliament on Sunday.
A moderate lawmaker, Mohammad Javad Kowlivand, demanded a probe into the U.S.-bashing campaign.
Political analyst Hamid Reza Shokouhi said opposition to Rouhani's outreach reflects the insecurities that come with any bold diplomatic gestures.
"Public opinion cannot easily digest that everything has suddenly changed," he said.
SAP is planning to rely heavily on HTML5 and open standards within its products for building mobile applications, and is embracing the concept of BYOT (bring your own tools) in order to draw interest from developers.
Version 3.0 of SAP Mobile Platform, which was announced Tuesday during the Tech Ed conference in Las Vegas, will combine SAP's NetWeaver Gateway, Sybase Mobiliser and Syclo Agentry products "to meet current and future mobile app use cases," according to the announcement.
SAP's mobility tools will support open-source standards such as OSGi, OData and Apache Cordova. Developers can also expect "extensive use of HTML5," SAP said.
Under the BYOT approach, developers can use their desired tools alongside those from SAP's platform. SAP is also planning to offer a cloud version of the mobile platform, according to the announcement.
The company announced updates to its Mobile Secure product portfolio on Tuesday as well.
An upcoming cloud-based version of SAP Mobile App Protection will help companies apply "fine-grained" security to applications running on iOS and Android devices, SAP said. The company has also upgraded its Mobile Documents product, adding iPhone and Android support, and has created a new secure mobile browser.
SAP gained a set of mobility products through the 2010 acquisition of Sybase.
It has been emphasizing mobile-friendly software development heavily of late, and earlier this year launched Fiori, a set of lightweight mobile applications that tie into its core Business Suite ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.
The Mobile Platform 3.0 release also represents a fresh start of sorts for SAP, according to one observer.
"When SAP assumed Sybase's mobile assets, they basically did not have a complete or stable product," said analyst Ray Wang of Constellation Research. "This new release is a major overhaul which allows them to write once, deploy everywhere."
SAP did make tweaks to the Sybase technology as part of the 3.0 upgrade, said executive board member Vishal Sikka, who heads all development, during a press conference on Tuesday at Tech Ed.
SAP has also had some time to rethink what is truly important for mobile developers, Wang added.
"Embedded security, mobile apps stores, and community are key to their potential success this time around," he said. "The challenge will be the price points as IBM is also aggressively competing in this space."
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Two Indiana University students were charged Sunday morning in connection with a stabbing that injured another student at a campus apartment building, school officials said.
University police arrested 18-year-old Zesen Shen and 21-year-old Kaiyu Lao, IU spokesman Mark Land said in a news release. Shen has been charged with intimidation and battery and Lao was charged with intimidation, Land said.
Police said Shen, Lao and a 20-year-old IU student were in the Tulip Tree apartment's parking lot around 3:30 a.m., Land said. Witnesses told campus police the three were there "to resolve a dispute when the suspects began chasing victim and wounded him with a knife," Land said.
University police Lt. Craig Munroe told the Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/1ckrtoX) the student was stabbed in the back. The 20-year-old was taken to IU Health hospital in Bloomington with an injury that isn't life-threatening, Land said.
The incident prompted university officials earlier Sunday to tell students to seek shelter behind locked doors. The school gave students the all clear around 7 a.m. CDT.
Contact: Christa Stratton cstratton@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
2013 GSA Annual Meeting
Boulder, CO, USA - U.S. National Parks are not just beautiful vistas and great family vacation destinations; they are also key scientific field laboratories and rich repositories of the record of Earth's history. Some recent discoveries to emerge from scientists working in U.S. National Parks will be presented in two sessions, Geology in the National Parks: Research, Mapping, and Resource Management I and II, at the 125th Anniversary meeting of The Geological Society of America in Denver next week.
Some abstracts of interest include:
18-1: (8:15 AM) Findings by Robert B. Smith (University of Utah) and colleagues, that the Yellowstone crustal magma reservoir is three times larger than previously thought, and the biggest Yellowstone Plateau threat is from large M7+ earthquakes, not from giant volcanic eruptions: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper234134.html
18-3: (8:45 AM) A new National Park Service (NPS) inventory lists 128 parks with documented plant fossils, including petrified wood, leaves, flowers, seeds, cones, nuts, roots, pollen, and amber. These span the Precambrian to the Holocene, aiding our understanding of past climates and ecosystems that have existed across North America through time. Vincent Santucci (NPS) will describe the comprehensive inventory of paleobotanical resources: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper233514.html
18-4: (9:00 AM) After South Dakota's Fossil Cycad National Monument was created in 1922, scavengers stole all the fossils on the surface, and the park was decommissioned in 1957. Now researchers are trying to find the remaining buried fossils. John M. Ghist (NPS) will relate the interesting tale of this almost forgotten national monument: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper229546.html
18-7: (10:00 AM) "Street view" comes to Denali! Four vehicle-based cameras (facing to the front, rear, left, and right) will make an overlapping series of several hundred thousand high-resolution images capturing 360-degree views at bus window height along the 92.5-mile length of the park road. The aim is to establish a photographic baseline for monitoring future changes in the views of Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve. In addition, Ronald D. Karpilo Jr. (Colorado State University) and Lacy N. Karpilo (University of Alaska-Anchorage) are using repeat photography of historic images (and showing the resulting photo pairs) to help document and interpret how park natural resources (such as glaciers, rivers, lakes, and vegetation) and cultural resources (such as roads, buildings, and mines) have changed during the past century: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper233873.html
78-3: (1:45 PM) Rising seas will alter the natural and cultural resources of 105 national parks in future years. At Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Everglades National Park, large areas will be submerged. Storm surges will make things worse. Maria A. Caffrey (University of Colorado-Boulder) outlines the work that is underway to respond to climate change in coastal national parks: Abstract: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper221754.html
WHAT: Sessions 18 and 78
Geology in the National Parks: Research, Mapping, and Resource Management I, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session32622.html
Geology in the National Parks: Research, Mapping, and Resource Management II, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session34404.html
WHEN: Sunday, 27 October 2013: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
WHERE: Colorado Convention Center Room 404
For more from the national parks, take a look at Monday's session "16 Years of GeoCorpsTMGeoscience Projects Impacting America's Public Lands and Natural Resources I and II." At 1:15 PM Monday (abstract: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper226877.html), the National Park Service's Lisa Norby will give a retrospective on 16 successful years of the Geoscientistin-the-Parks (GIP) program. In partnership with GSA's GeoCorpsTM America program, GIP places geoscientists in national parks where they have contributed nearly 450,000 hours of service to the American public on projects such as inventory and monitoring of Earth system resources, geoscience research, GIS projects, and education and outreach. This talk will showcase outstanding projects, accomplishments and benefits.
WHAT: Sessions 110 and 175
16 Years of GeoCorpsTMGeoscience Projects Impacting America's Public Lands and Natural Resources I, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session33312.html
16 Years of GeoCorpsTMGeoscience Projects Impacting America's Public Lands and Natural Resources II, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session34234.html
WHEN: Monday, 28 October 2013: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
WHERE: Colorado Convention Center Room 404
###
ON-SITE NEWSROOM
Contact: Kea Giles
Colorado Convention Center, Room 608
+1-303-228-8431
The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with more than 25,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education.
http://www.geosociety.org
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Treasures found and lost in US National Parks
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27-Oct-2013
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Contact: Christa Stratton cstratton@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
2013 GSA Annual Meeting
Boulder, CO, USA - U.S. National Parks are not just beautiful vistas and great family vacation destinations; they are also key scientific field laboratories and rich repositories of the record of Earth's history. Some recent discoveries to emerge from scientists working in U.S. National Parks will be presented in two sessions, Geology in the National Parks: Research, Mapping, and Resource Management I and II, at the 125th Anniversary meeting of The Geological Society of America in Denver next week.
Some abstracts of interest include:
18-1: (8:15 AM) Findings by Robert B. Smith (University of Utah) and colleagues, that the Yellowstone crustal magma reservoir is three times larger than previously thought, and the biggest Yellowstone Plateau threat is from large M7+ earthquakes, not from giant volcanic eruptions: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper234134.html
18-3: (8:45 AM) A new National Park Service (NPS) inventory lists 128 parks with documented plant fossils, including petrified wood, leaves, flowers, seeds, cones, nuts, roots, pollen, and amber. These span the Precambrian to the Holocene, aiding our understanding of past climates and ecosystems that have existed across North America through time. Vincent Santucci (NPS) will describe the comprehensive inventory of paleobotanical resources: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper233514.html
18-4: (9:00 AM) After South Dakota's Fossil Cycad National Monument was created in 1922, scavengers stole all the fossils on the surface, and the park was decommissioned in 1957. Now researchers are trying to find the remaining buried fossils. John M. Ghist (NPS) will relate the interesting tale of this almost forgotten national monument: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper229546.html
18-7: (10:00 AM) "Street view" comes to Denali! Four vehicle-based cameras (facing to the front, rear, left, and right) will make an overlapping series of several hundred thousand high-resolution images capturing 360-degree views at bus window height along the 92.5-mile length of the park road. The aim is to establish a photographic baseline for monitoring future changes in the views of Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve. In addition, Ronald D. Karpilo Jr. (Colorado State University) and Lacy N. Karpilo (University of Alaska-Anchorage) are using repeat photography of historic images (and showing the resulting photo pairs) to help document and interpret how park natural resources (such as glaciers, rivers, lakes, and vegetation) and cultural resources (such as roads, buildings, and mines) have changed during the past century: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper233873.html
78-3: (1:45 PM) Rising seas will alter the natural and cultural resources of 105 national parks in future years. At Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Everglades National Park, large areas will be submerged. Storm surges will make things worse. Maria A. Caffrey (University of Colorado-Boulder) outlines the work that is underway to respond to climate change in coastal national parks: Abstract: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper221754.html
WHAT: Sessions 18 and 78
Geology in the National Parks: Research, Mapping, and Resource Management I, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session32622.html
Geology in the National Parks: Research, Mapping, and Resource Management II, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session34404.html
WHEN: Sunday, 27 October 2013: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
WHERE: Colorado Convention Center Room 404
For more from the national parks, take a look at Monday's session "16 Years of GeoCorpsTMGeoscience Projects Impacting America's Public Lands and Natural Resources I and II." At 1:15 PM Monday (abstract: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Paper226877.html), the National Park Service's Lisa Norby will give a retrospective on 16 successful years of the Geoscientistin-the-Parks (GIP) program. In partnership with GSA's GeoCorpsTM America program, GIP places geoscientists in national parks where they have contributed nearly 450,000 hours of service to the American public on projects such as inventory and monitoring of Earth system resources, geoscience research, GIS projects, and education and outreach. This talk will showcase outstanding projects, accomplishments and benefits.
WHAT: Sessions 110 and 175
16 Years of GeoCorpsTMGeoscience Projects Impacting America's Public Lands and Natural Resources I, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session33312.html
16 Years of GeoCorpsTMGeoscience Projects Impacting America's Public Lands and Natural Resources II, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogram/Session34234.html
WHEN: Monday, 28 October 2013: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
WHERE: Colorado Convention Center Room 404
###
ON-SITE NEWSROOM
Contact: Kea Giles
Colorado Convention Center, Room 608
+1-303-228-8431
The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with more than 25,000 members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education.
http://www.geosociety.org
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