??SCOW (Reuters) - Moscow urged restraint in the Korean peninsula on Saturday, after North Korea said it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea in a further escalation of its bellicose rhetoric against Seoul and its main ally, the United States.
"We hope that all parties will exercise maximum responsibility and restraint and no one will cross the point of no return," senior Russian Foreign Ministry official Grigory Logvinov told Interfax news agency.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday put missile units on standby to attack U.S. military bases in the South and the Pacific, after two nuclear-capable U.S. stealth bombers flew over the Korean peninsula in a rare show of force.
"We expect that everyone understands that a recurrence of the war on the peninsula is definitely unacceptable," Logvinov told news agency RIA.
When asked by reporters if Pyongyang had the same understanding, Logvinov said: "Of course. We were in contact with the North Korean side".
U.S. officials said the B-2 bombers were on a diplomatic sortie aimed at reassuring allies South Korea and Japan and were also aimed at trying to nudge Pyongyang back to dialogue.
"At least at this point, we see that the statements (of Washington) are rather restrained. The position of the American side is a bit reassuring," Logvinov told RIA.
Russia warned on Friday that the heightened military activity was slipping into a "vicious cycle" that could get out of control.
Tension has been high since North Korea conducted a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of U.N. sanctions and despite warnings from China for it not to do so.
As tensions rose close to Russia's eastern borders, President Vladimir Putin made staff changes within the Security Council, promoting Yuri Averyanov, with experience of Far East affairs, to the first deputy of the top security chief.
Averyanov moved to the Security Council in 2006 after six years as Putin's deputy representative for the Russian Far East.
(Reporting by Maya Dyakina; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
The eponymous "Smart car" has been buzzing around city streets in the US for over five years now. It's actually called the Fortwo, thanks to its limited seating capacity, and while it didn't prove to be an immediate hit, sales have been steadily increasing. An electric version of the car has been available in limited numbers overseas for years now, but finally this year it's coming to the US. And this is it. We got a chance to drive a green vinyl-wrapped Smart Electric Drive around some city streets ahead of the opening of the New York International Auto Show and came away reasonably impressed by this $25,000 EV -- the cheapest on the market. Join us after the break for our impressions.
By Simon Evans MIAMI (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams fought back from a set down to beat Maria Sharapova 4-6 6-3 6-0 and win the Sony Open for a record sixth time on Saturday as she continued her dominance over her closest rival. With the win, Williams, who struggled with her serve in the first two sets, becomes only the fourth woman in the Open era to win the same WTA tournament six times, joining Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf. "I finally have some record," Williams said. "Like it's really cool. I can't seem to catch up with Margaret Court or Steffi or ...
Some Goodreads users are excited about the prospect of linking their Amazon devices to their Goodreads accounts while others feel betrayed by the decision.
By Molly Driscoll,?Staff Writer / March 29, 2013
The acquisition of Goodreads by book-buying giant Amazon is expected to close by July.
Enlarge
In a move that has angered some in the book world, Amazon has bought popular social media book website Goodreads.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Goodreads lets readers view recommendations from other users and comment on their favorite titles, and having the website may give Amazon more of an ability to reach readers and recommend books.
In a statement on their website, Goodreads founder Otis Chandler wrote, ?Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site?the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors?and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it's incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.?
The site was founded in 2007 and now boasts more than 16 million members. Chandler wrote on the company?s blog that ?Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away,? so it seems as if the website?s staff will stay on.
Chandler said of becoming part of the Amazon company, ?We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.?
The acquisition should close by July. Details such as whether Amazon will have access to information shared by Goodreads users or whether Goodreads recommendations will carry over to users' Amazon accounts have not yet been shared.
However, some are not happy about the decision, with industry newsletter Shelf Awareness writing that some Goodreads members, including those who own independent bookstores, left the website after the announcement was made.
?Too bad,? one commenter named Wendi wrote on the Goodreads site. ?Another good independent thing bites the dust. Happy for you and the money you'll make off the cool thing you started; sad for me, and sad for the internet, which will soon be owned by Amazon and Facebook.?
Another commenter named Macartney wrote, ?This is a big bummer. I understand you guys and your backers are looking to make money, but this has ripped the rug out from under everything I enjoyed about Goodreads. Amazon is undermining and destroying publishing as we know it. I don't want to participate with that kind of company.??
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is wishing a joyful Easter to those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the Easter and Passover holidays give millions of Christians, Jews and people of other faiths a chance to slow down and recommit themselves to loving their neighbors and seeing everyone as a child of God.
Jews celebrated Passover at sundown on Monday. Easter is Sunday.
In the Republican address, Rep. Terry Lee of Nebraska called for approval of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada's tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. Lee says the project would help create tens of thousands of jobs.
The Obama administration is considering whether to approve the project, which would run through Lee's home state.
Pope Francis, right, looks up to the Crucifix during the Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Friday, March 29, 2013. Pope Francis began the Good Friday service at the Vatican with the Passion of Christ Mass and hours later will go to the ancient Colosseum in Rome for the traditional Way of the Cross procession. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis, right, looks up to the Crucifix during the Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Friday, March 29, 2013. Pope Francis began the Good Friday service at the Vatican with the Passion of Christ Mass and hours later will go to the ancient Colosseum in Rome for the traditional Way of the Cross procession. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world's poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy.
Francis' decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls ? a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic ? during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict's papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church.
One of the most-read traditionalist blogs, "Rorate Caeli," reacted to the foot-washing ceremony by declaring the death of Benedict's eight-year project to correct what he considered the botched interpretations of the Second Vatican Council's modernizing reforms.
"The official end of the reform of the reform ? by example," ''Rorate Caeli" lamented in its report on Francis' Holy Thursday ritual.
A like-minded commentator in Francis' native Argentina, Marcelo Gonzalez at International Catholic Panorama, reacted to Francis' election with this phrase: "The Horror." Gonzalez's beef? While serving as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis' efforts to revive the old Latin Mass so dear to Benedict and traditionalists were "non-existent."
The night he was chosen pope, March 13, Francis emerged from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica without the ermine-rimmed red velvet cape, or mozzetta, used by popes past for official duties, wearing instead the simple white cassock of the papacy.
He also received the cardinals' pledges of obedience after his election not from a chair on a pedestal as popes normally do but rather standing, on their same level. In the days since, he has called for "intensified" dialogue with Islam ? a gesture that rankles some traditionalists because they view interfaith dialogue as a sign of religious relativism.
This year's Good Friday procession at Rome's Colosseum, which re-enacts Jesus Christ's crucifixion, was dedicated to the plight of Mideast Christians, with prayers calling for an end to "violent fundamentalism."
Francis, however, chose to stress Christians' positive relations with Muslims in brief remarks the end of the ceremony. He recalled Benedict's 2012 visit to Lebanon when "we saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters and so many others."
Francis also raised traditional eyebrows when he refused the golden pectoral cross offered to him right after his election by Monsignor Guido Marini, the Vatican's liturgy guru who under Benedict became the symbol of Benedict's effort to restore the Gregorian chant and heavy silk brocaded vestments of the pre-Vatican II liturgy to papal Masses.
Marini has gamely stayed by Francis' side as the new pope puts his own stamp on Vatican Masses with no-nonsense vestments and easy off-the-cuff homilies. But there is widespread expectation that Francis will soon name a new master of liturgical ceremonies more in line with his priorities of bringing the church and its message of love and service to ordinary people without the "high church" trappings of his predecessor.
There were certainly none of those trappings on display Thursday at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention facility in Rome, where the 76-year-old Francis got down on his knees and to wash the feet of 12 inmates, two of them women. The rite re-enacts Jesus' washing of the feet of his 12 apostles during the Last Supper before his crucifixion, a sign of his love and service to them.
The church's liturgical law holds that only men can participate in the rite, given that Jesus' apostles were all male. Priests and bishops have routinely petitioned for exemptions to include women, but the law is clear.
Francis, however, is the church's chief lawmaker, so in theory he can do whatever he wants.
"The pope does not need anybody's permission to make exceptions to how ecclesiastical law relates to him," noted conservative columnist Jimmy Akin in the National Catholic Register. But Akin echoed concerns raised by canon lawyer Edward Peters, an adviser to the Vatican's high court, that Francis was setting a "questionable example" by simply ignoring the church's own rules.
"People naturally imitate their leader. That's the whole point behind Jesus washing the disciples' feet. He was explicitly and intentionally setting an example for them," he said. "Pope Francis knows that he is setting an example."
The inclusion of women in the rite is problematic for some because it could be seen as an opening of sorts to women's ordination. The Catholic Church restricts the priesthood to men, arguing that Jesus and his 12 apostles were male.
Francis is clearly opposed to women's ordination. But by washing the feet of women, he jolted traditionalists who for years have been unbending in insisting that the ritual is for men only and proudly holding up as evidence documentation from the Vatican's liturgy office saying so.
"If someone is washing the feet of any females ... he is in violation of the Holy Thursday rubrics," Peters wrote in a 2006 article that he reposted earlier this month on his blog.
In the face of the pope doing that very thing, Peters ? like many conservative and traditionalist commentators ? have found themselves trying to put the best face on a situation they don't like lest they be openly voicing dissent with the pope.
By Thursday evening, Peters was saying that Francis had merely "disregarded" the law ? not violated it.
The Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when it concerns liturgical abuses, had to measure his comments when the purported abuser was the pope himself.
"Before liberals and traditionalists both have a spittle-flecked nutty, each for their own reasons, try to figure out what he is trying to do," Zuhlsdorf wrote.
But, in characteristic form, he added: "What liberals forget in their present crowing is that even as Francis makes himself ? and the church ? more popular by projecting (a) compassionate image, he will simultaneously make it harder for them to criticize him when he reaffirms the doctrinal points they want him to overturn."
One of the key barometers of how traditionalists view Francis concerns his take on the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. The Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern world, allowed the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin. In the decades that followed, the so-called Tridentine Rite fell out of use almost entirely.
Traditionalist Catholics who were attached to the old rite blame many of the ills afflicting the Catholic Church today ? a drop in priestly vocations, empty pews in Europe and beyond ? on the liturgical abuses that they say have proliferated with the celebration of the new form of Mass.
In a bid to reach out to them, Benedict in 2007 relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass. The move was aimed also at reconciling with a group of schismatic traditionalists, the Society of St. Pius X, who split from Rome precisely over the Vatican II reforms, in particular its call for Mass in the vernacular and outreach to other religions, especially Judaism and Islam.
Benedict took extraordinary measures to bring the society back under Rome's wing during his pontificate, but negotiations stalled.
The society has understandably reacted coolly to Francis' election, reminding the pope that his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, was told by Christ to go and "rebuild my church." For the society, that means rebuilding it in a pre-Vatican II vision.
The head of the society for South America, the Rev. Christian Bouchacourt, was less than generous in his assessment of Francis.
"He cultivates a militant humility, but can prove humiliating for the church," Bouchacourt said in a recent article, criticizing the "dilapidated" state of the clergy in Buenos Aires and the "disaster" of its seminary. "With him, we risk to see once again the masses of Paul VI's pontificate, a far cry from Benedict XVI's efforts to restore to their honor the worthy liturgical ceremonies."
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
March 29 (Reuters) - The Detroit Tigers made Justin Verlander the highest paid pitcher in Major League Baseball, signing their ace right-hander to a record smashing five-year contract extension on Friday.
The Tigers did not announce terms of the deal but according to media reports, Verlander will remain under contract to Detroit through the 2019 season and could become MLB's first $200 million pitcher.
Verlander has two years remaining on his current five-year $79.5 million deal and combined with a new five-year $140 million extension that includes a club option for 2020 for another $22 million, he would become baseball's richest hurler.
He reportedly would make $28 million each season from 2015-2019.
The deal, which comes two days before the Major League season opens on Sunday, easily surpasses the seven-year, $175 million extension Felix Hernandez signed in February with the Seattle Mariners.
"Justin is one of the premier pitchers in baseball and we are thrilled to keep him in a Tigers uniform for many years to come," said Detroit president, chief executive and general manager Dave Dombrowski on the Tigers' website. "Justin has been a Tiger for his entire career and he is on pace to be one of the greatest pitchers in this illustrious franchise's history."
A five-time All-Star, Verlander has established himself as one of baseball's most dominant pitchers, claiming American League most valuable player and Cy Young Award honors in 2011.
Last season the 30-year-old right-hander went 17-8 with a 2.64 earned run average and 239 strikeouts in 33 starts in helping the Tigers to a World Series appearance against the San Francisco Giants.
His career record of 124-65 includes two no-hitters.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, editing by Gene Cherry)
LITHOSPHERE covers Canada, California, the Alps, and the Scandinavian CaledonidesPublic release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kea Giles kgiles@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
Boulder, Colo., USA - The April 2013 issue of Lithosphere is now available. Four classic research papers cover the Saint Elias Mountains of Yukon and British Columbia, Canada; the Nacimiento fault near San Simeon, California, USA; the western Alps; and the Caledonides in Scandinavia. An invited review relays the significance of dynamic topography to long-term sea level change. This month's research focus article, which is open access online, discusses the revolution in remote sensing-LiDAR-laser altimetry swath mapping.
Abstracts are online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/content/current. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of LITHOSPHERE 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 LITHOSPHERE 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.
Detrital zircon Hf isotopic compositions indicate a northern Caledonian connection for the Alexander terrane
L. Beranek et al., Stockholm University, Geological Sciences, Svante Arrhenius vg 8, Stockholm, Stockholm 106 91, Sweden. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 19 Dec. 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L255.1.
Earth's plate tectonic history during the Silurian and Devonian periods, approx. 400 million years ago, was dominated by the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and subsequent continent-continent collision between Laurentia (ancestral North America) and Baltica (ancestral northern Europe). This collision led to the rise of the Appalachian-Caledonian Mountains and the assembly of supercontinent Laurussia. To test ancient stratigraphic connections between the northern Caledonian mountains of Laurussia and crustal fragments now located in the North American Cordillera, Luke Beranek and colleagues acquired new analytical data from Silurian and Devonian sedimentary rocks of the Alexander terrane in the Saint Elias Mountains of Yukon and British Columbia, Canada. Their datasets indicate that terrestrial and shallow-marine rocks of the Alexander terrane, including distinctive red-bed sandstones, were sourced from northern Caledonian granitoids and are analogous to sedimentary units of the Old Red Sandstone in the present-day North Atlantic region. These data have major ramifications not only for the paleogeography and displacement history of the Alexander terrane, but also the proposed Caledonian affinities of other terranes in the North American Cordillera that underlie much of Alaska, British Columbia, and western United States.
Kinematic analysis of mlange fabrics in the Franciscan Complex near San Simeon, California: Evidence for sinistral slip on the Nacimiento fault zone?
J. Singleton, Dept. of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA; and M. Cloos, Dept. of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 USA. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 19 Dec. 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L259.1.
A controversial topic in California geology is the tectonic significance of the Nacimiento fault, a major structure that was active approximately 75 to 60 million years ago during subduction of oceanic crust beneath California. This fault juxtaposes granitic rocks similar to the Sierra Nevada batholith on the northeast side of the fault (the Salinian block) against rocks that formed within a subduction zone on the southwest side of the fault (the Franciscan Complex). Most previous studies have interpreted the Nacimiento fault either as (a) a left-lateral strike-slip fault along which the Salinian block granitic rocks moved 500-600 km northwestward with respect to the Franciscan Complex rocks; or (b) a thrust fault along which the Salinian block rocks were displaced more than 100 km southwestward over the Franciscan rocks. This study by John Singleton and Mark Cloos presents new structural data from Franciscan Complex rocks exposed along beach cliffs near San Simeon, California. These rocks have undergone left-lateral shearing parallel to the Nacimiento fault. Singleton and Cloos suggest this shearing was related to movement on the Nacimiento fault, supporting the tectonic interpretation of the Nacimiento fault as a major left-lateral structure.
Short-lived fast erosional exhumation of the internal Western Alps during the late Early Oligocene: constraints from geo-thermochronology of pro- and retro-side foreland basin sediments S. Jourdan et al., ISTerre, Grenoble, 38110, France. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 25 Feb. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L243.1.
The Oligocene is a key period in the evolution of the western Alps during which the mountain belt evolved from an accretionary wedge (Late Cretaceous to Eocene) to a relatively high-elevation mountain belt, similar to the central Alps today. Studying the sediments and sedimentary rocks deposited in basins adjacent to this mountain belt helps in reconstructing the orogenic evolution. During this period, relatively fast erosion is seen as a result of rapid surface uplift coupled with increasing orographic precipitation during this phase of orogenesis. Surface uplift may have been caused and sustained by different plate-tectonic processes such as a change in convergence direction, intermediate-depth slab breakoff, and emplacement of the Ivrea body during continental collision. The occurrence of contemporaneous volcanic activity on the pro-side of the western Alps on the subducting European plate between 36 and 30 million years ago is seen in connection with slab rollback of the Apennine slab and upwelling of hot mantle material beneath the western Alps.
Subduction along and within the Baltoscandian margin during the closing of the Iapetus Ocean and Baltica-Laurentia collision D. Gee et al., Uppsala University, Earth Sciences, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 19 Dec. 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L220.1.
There are few places in the world where it is possible to trace a hot allochthon for 200 km across a continental margin, demonstrate its lateral displacement to have been more than twice this distance, infer that it was generated in an outer-margin subduction system during the final stages of ocean closure, and show that emplacement onto the platform occurred during subsequent continent collision. As a result of good exposure in the Scandian mountain belt and erosion to middle-crustal levels, the Caledonides in Scandinavia provide one of the best opportunities on the planet to study these aspects of mountain building.
INVITED REVIEW ARTICLE A review of observations and models of dynamic topography N. Flament et al., The University of Sydney, School of Geoscience, Madsen Building F09, Room 416, Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 4 Feb. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L245.1.
It has been known since the early 1960s that moving tectonic plates shape the Earth's surface, forming mountain belts and rift valleys. In addition to this tectonic topography, the more subtle deformation of the Earth's surface due to mantle flow in the Earth's interior, called dynamic topography, has been an active research topic since the mid-1980s. Dynamic topography has received increased interest over the last few years because it challenged the well-established view that long-term sea level change can be deduced from the rock record of "stable" continental shelves. In this review article, Nicolas Flament and colleagues show that there is good agreement between long-wavelength (greater than 5,000 km) observations and models of dynamic topography. Their work confirms the significance of dynamic topography to long-term sea level change and reinforces that comparing the predictions of mantle flow models to the geological record constrains the physical properties of the mantle. Larger data sets and increasing computing power will enable progress in this field in the coming years.
RESEARCH FOCUS ARTICLE Active tectonics and LiDAR revolution A. Meigs, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, 104 CEOAS Administration Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. Issue: April 2013; free access at http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/RF.L004.1.
A revolution in remote sensing, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) laser altimetry swath mapping, reveals the details of topographic features at such high resolution that they have transformed our understanding of tectonic forcing of the shape of the Earth's surface. Meter-scale DEMs (digital elevation models) capture fault offsets, fault zone structure, off-fault deformation, and landscape properties at microgeomorphic scale, highlighting that the surface faithfully records the complexity and sensitivity of deformation in detail.
###
http://www.geosociety.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
LITHOSPHERE covers Canada, California, the Alps, and the Scandinavian CaledonidesPublic release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kea Giles kgiles@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
Boulder, Colo., USA - The April 2013 issue of Lithosphere is now available. Four classic research papers cover the Saint Elias Mountains of Yukon and British Columbia, Canada; the Nacimiento fault near San Simeon, California, USA; the western Alps; and the Caledonides in Scandinavia. An invited review relays the significance of dynamic topography to long-term sea level change. This month's research focus article, which is open access online, discusses the revolution in remote sensing-LiDAR-laser altimetry swath mapping.
Abstracts are online at http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/content/current. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of LITHOSPHERE 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 LITHOSPHERE 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.
Detrital zircon Hf isotopic compositions indicate a northern Caledonian connection for the Alexander terrane
L. Beranek et al., Stockholm University, Geological Sciences, Svante Arrhenius vg 8, Stockholm, Stockholm 106 91, Sweden. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 19 Dec. 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L255.1.
Earth's plate tectonic history during the Silurian and Devonian periods, approx. 400 million years ago, was dominated by the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and subsequent continent-continent collision between Laurentia (ancestral North America) and Baltica (ancestral northern Europe). This collision led to the rise of the Appalachian-Caledonian Mountains and the assembly of supercontinent Laurussia. To test ancient stratigraphic connections between the northern Caledonian mountains of Laurussia and crustal fragments now located in the North American Cordillera, Luke Beranek and colleagues acquired new analytical data from Silurian and Devonian sedimentary rocks of the Alexander terrane in the Saint Elias Mountains of Yukon and British Columbia, Canada. Their datasets indicate that terrestrial and shallow-marine rocks of the Alexander terrane, including distinctive red-bed sandstones, were sourced from northern Caledonian granitoids and are analogous to sedimentary units of the Old Red Sandstone in the present-day North Atlantic region. These data have major ramifications not only for the paleogeography and displacement history of the Alexander terrane, but also the proposed Caledonian affinities of other terranes in the North American Cordillera that underlie much of Alaska, British Columbia, and western United States.
Kinematic analysis of mlange fabrics in the Franciscan Complex near San Simeon, California: Evidence for sinistral slip on the Nacimiento fault zone?
J. Singleton, Dept. of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA; and M. Cloos, Dept. of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 USA. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 19 Dec. 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L259.1.
A controversial topic in California geology is the tectonic significance of the Nacimiento fault, a major structure that was active approximately 75 to 60 million years ago during subduction of oceanic crust beneath California. This fault juxtaposes granitic rocks similar to the Sierra Nevada batholith on the northeast side of the fault (the Salinian block) against rocks that formed within a subduction zone on the southwest side of the fault (the Franciscan Complex). Most previous studies have interpreted the Nacimiento fault either as (a) a left-lateral strike-slip fault along which the Salinian block granitic rocks moved 500-600 km northwestward with respect to the Franciscan Complex rocks; or (b) a thrust fault along which the Salinian block rocks were displaced more than 100 km southwestward over the Franciscan rocks. This study by John Singleton and Mark Cloos presents new structural data from Franciscan Complex rocks exposed along beach cliffs near San Simeon, California. These rocks have undergone left-lateral shearing parallel to the Nacimiento fault. Singleton and Cloos suggest this shearing was related to movement on the Nacimiento fault, supporting the tectonic interpretation of the Nacimiento fault as a major left-lateral structure.
Short-lived fast erosional exhumation of the internal Western Alps during the late Early Oligocene: constraints from geo-thermochronology of pro- and retro-side foreland basin sediments S. Jourdan et al., ISTerre, Grenoble, 38110, France. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 25 Feb. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L243.1.
The Oligocene is a key period in the evolution of the western Alps during which the mountain belt evolved from an accretionary wedge (Late Cretaceous to Eocene) to a relatively high-elevation mountain belt, similar to the central Alps today. Studying the sediments and sedimentary rocks deposited in basins adjacent to this mountain belt helps in reconstructing the orogenic evolution. During this period, relatively fast erosion is seen as a result of rapid surface uplift coupled with increasing orographic precipitation during this phase of orogenesis. Surface uplift may have been caused and sustained by different plate-tectonic processes such as a change in convergence direction, intermediate-depth slab breakoff, and emplacement of the Ivrea body during continental collision. The occurrence of contemporaneous volcanic activity on the pro-side of the western Alps on the subducting European plate between 36 and 30 million years ago is seen in connection with slab rollback of the Apennine slab and upwelling of hot mantle material beneath the western Alps.
Subduction along and within the Baltoscandian margin during the closing of the Iapetus Ocean and Baltica-Laurentia collision D. Gee et al., Uppsala University, Earth Sciences, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 19 Dec. 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L220.1.
There are few places in the world where it is possible to trace a hot allochthon for 200 km across a continental margin, demonstrate its lateral displacement to have been more than twice this distance, infer that it was generated in an outer-margin subduction system during the final stages of ocean closure, and show that emplacement onto the platform occurred during subsequent continent collision. As a result of good exposure in the Scandian mountain belt and erosion to middle-crustal levels, the Caledonides in Scandinavia provide one of the best opportunities on the planet to study these aspects of mountain building.
INVITED REVIEW ARTICLE A review of observations and models of dynamic topography N. Flament et al., The University of Sydney, School of Geoscience, Madsen Building F09, Room 416, Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Issue: April 2013. Originally posted online 4 Feb. 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/L245.1.
It has been known since the early 1960s that moving tectonic plates shape the Earth's surface, forming mountain belts and rift valleys. In addition to this tectonic topography, the more subtle deformation of the Earth's surface due to mantle flow in the Earth's interior, called dynamic topography, has been an active research topic since the mid-1980s. Dynamic topography has received increased interest over the last few years because it challenged the well-established view that long-term sea level change can be deduced from the rock record of "stable" continental shelves. In this review article, Nicolas Flament and colleagues show that there is good agreement between long-wavelength (greater than 5,000 km) observations and models of dynamic topography. Their work confirms the significance of dynamic topography to long-term sea level change and reinforces that comparing the predictions of mantle flow models to the geological record constrains the physical properties of the mantle. Larger data sets and increasing computing power will enable progress in this field in the coming years.
RESEARCH FOCUS ARTICLE Active tectonics and LiDAR revolution A. Meigs, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, 104 CEOAS Administration Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. Issue: April 2013; free access at http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/RF.L004.1.
A revolution in remote sensing, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) laser altimetry swath mapping, reveals the details of topographic features at such high resolution that they have transformed our understanding of tectonic forcing of the shape of the Earth's surface. Meter-scale DEMs (digital elevation models) capture fault offsets, fault zone structure, off-fault deformation, and landscape properties at microgeomorphic scale, highlighting that the surface faithfully records the complexity and sensitivity of deformation in detail.
###
http://www.geosociety.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
All Critics (98) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (91) | Rotten (7)
Let's trivialize a legacy of cruelty and denigration, in a country where indigenous people suffered from centuries of human rights abuse! And let's make the carnage of Vietnam look like a paintball game!
[A] genial, entertaining, clich?-ridden showbiz story from Australia.
"The Sapphires" illustrates how the same old story - in this case, the one about a 1960s girl group and its struggles - can be freshened up through the novelties of place and characterization.
A very conventional story of a '60s Australian girl group gains extra power from its context and setting in this fact-based story set to the beat of Motown soul.
The performers improve it, or save it, depending on your viewpoint.
"The Sapphires" is a bit like a puppy you're trying to house break. It may have its bad cinematic moments but it's just so darn appealing that you have to love it.
If you love the music of Motown and enjoy a feel good success flick, then "The Sapphires" fits the bill.
Delirious surprises crowd out the clich?s in this thoroughly disarming movie.
Mauboy has one hell of a voice, and the Sapphires' vocal performances speak to the endless power of great soul songs.
Irresistibly feel good, sound good movie, wears hearts and social relevance on its sparkly sleeve. . .Fun and racial tolerance amidst war [with] sterling aborigine talent.
The most affable, innocuous outing ever set in a war zone.
With O'Dowd in the lead, and a hit-soundtrack-ready selection of tunes from the Stax and Motown catalogs and more, The Sapphires is popcorn entertainment, with some earned laughs and a genuine heart.
It helps that the leading actors are so skillful and appealing, beginning with Chris O'Dowd as a roguish Irishman who becomes the girls' manager...
You've seen this type of tale many times before...but the inspired-by-a-true-story Aboriginal slant adds interest, the actresses create unique characters and Chris O'Dowd really shines.
This familiar but supremely well-told and produced tale of the unlikely rise of an Aboriginal female pop group in the Vietnam War-era is feel-good entertainment at its best. Performances, solid script and great music all hit the high notes.
It sidesteps the usual cliches. Fame and fortune matter less than the human connections that are fostered and repaired on this unlikely journey.
Melodramatic and clich?d to a fault, The Sapphires is however elevated by winsome performances, particularly O'Dowd, and plentiful musically-driven charm.
Not even sweet soul music can turn Vietnam circa 1968 into a feel-good trip, but "The Sapphires" tries its darnedest.
No quotes approved yet for The Sapphires. Logged in users can submit quotes.
A Soyuz rocket carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts roared into space today on the first-ever "express" flight to the International Space Station.
The rocket launched NASA astronaut?Chris Cassidy?and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov into orbit at 4:43 p.m. EDT?(2043 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the local time was early Friday. The crew's Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is expected to make history when it arrives at the space station later tonight.
The Soyuz crew plans to dock at the space station's Poisk module tonight at 10:32 pm EDT (0232 GMT Friday). You can watch the space docking live on SPACE.com here.
Until today, Soyuz and NASA shuttle trips to the space station typically took at least two days, but Cassidy, Misurkin and Vinogradov are due to?arrive in just six hours, after making only four orbits of Earth. Some NASA officials have dubbed the flight profile, the "express" flight to the International Space Station.
"I think this is a very good thing that we are decreasing the time that it takes for crews to reach the International Space Station," Vinogradov said in a pre-launch interview. "I'm confident that both in Russia and in the United States we have excellent teams that are supporting us." [Launch Photos: Soyuz Rocket's 'Express' Flight to Station]
The quick trip to the space station has been made before by unmanned cargo spacecraft, but never by a crew. Mission managers say its benefits include less time spent in a cramped space by the crew, and a savings on expenses related to the personnel needed in Mission Control when Soyuz is flying.
Once there, they will join the existing station residents ? commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn ? on the station's?Expedition 35 mission. The newcomers are due to stay in space for about six months.
"It's shaping up to be a very dynamic and a very busy expedition," Cassidy said during a pre-launch interview. "We welcome that ? that makes us feel very rewarded and high job satisfaction. When you can deliver for people that have worked hard to produce all of those activities on the ground, that's very satisfying," he said of the ability to fulfill the goals of the Mission Control team.
Cassidy and Vinogradov are both spaceflight veterans: The former flew on the STS-127 space shuttle mission in 2009, while Vinogradov visited the Russian Mir space station in 1997 and the?International Space Station?in 2006. Misurkin, a spaceflight rookie, is making his first journey to orbit.
"I'm just really excited and looking forward to this flight," he said in a preflight interview. "I think it would be a great experience for me and the biggest thing in my whole life."
In between their busy schedules of science experiments, space station maintenance and spacewalks for station upkeep, the spaceflyers hope to find some down time to appreciate their environment.
Vinogradov is an astronomy buff and said he looks forward to the view of the heavens from space.
"I think I'm very fortunate that I have this unique opportunity to perform space observations from space," Vinogradov told SPACE.com in a preflight interview. "Every time I get a spare minute I plan to practice astronomy. I cant promise or guarantee that this will happen every day, because our flight program is very busy, but I am planning to use every opportunity to do that."
Vinogradov is scheduled to take over command of the space station from Hadfield in May when Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn return to Earth. Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin are due to return home in September.
Follow Clara Moskowitz?@ClaraMoskowitz?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ruh-roh! Looks like another government-backed ?green manufacturer? may be headed for bankruptcy. Fisker Automotive, a government loan recipient that produces electric/hybrid cars, has furloughed ?its employees just weeks after its founder resigned following a management fight. From CBS Los Angeles:
Anaheim-based Fisker?Automotive?Inc. has furloughed its employees two weeks after the company?s founder, Henrik Fisker, resigned as executive chairman during a management dispute.
The office has been closed since Friday, March 22, and will remain closed through Sunday, March 31.
The company is attempting to?cut costs?as it faces an April 22 deadline to make a payment on a loan from the U.S. government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The car-maker stopped manufacturing its electric-gas?hybrids?last July and has faced recalls associated with its lithium-ion batteries, according to the Orange County Register.
The company, which once employed roughly 600 workers, says 220 workers will return to work on Monday.
Another government-backed green energy company is about to go under? Imagine that.
Fisker is about to end up like Solyndra, Satcon,?A123 Systems, and the other 30 or so Obama-backed ?green energy? failures. Who saw that coming? Oh, wait? everyone.
DENVER (AP) ? Prosecutors in the Colorado theater massacre case have rejected an offer from suspect James Holmes to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, saying the proposal can't be considered genuine because the defense has repeatedly refused to give them information needed to evaluate it.
No plea agreement exists, prosecutors said in a scathing court document Thursday, and one "is extremely unlikely based on the present information available to the prosecution."
They also said anyone reading news stories about the offer would inevitably conclude "the defendant knows that he is guilty, the defense attorneys know that he is guilty, and that both of them know that he was not criminally insane."
Neither the defense nor the prosecution immediately returned phone calls Thursday.
Holmes is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in the July 20 shootings in a packed theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora. Twelve people were killed and 70 were injured.
Holmes' attorneys disclosed in a court filing Wednesday that their client has offered to plead guilty, but only if he wouldn't be executed.
Prosecutors criticized defense attorneys for publicizing the offer, calling it a ploy meant to draw the public and the judge into what should be private plea negotiations.
Prosecutors did not say what information the defense refused to give them, but the two sides have argued in court previously about access to information about Holmes' mental health.
Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who is now an adjunct professor at the University of Denver's law school, said prosecutors clearly do not want to agree to a plea deal without knowing whether Holmes' attorneys could mount a strong mental health defense.
"One of the issues the prosecution needs to look at is, is there a likelihood that doctors, and then a jury, could find that James Holmes was insane at the time of the crime?" she said.
Prosecutors also criticized comments to The Associated Press by Doug Wilson, who heads the state public defenders' office.
Wilson told the AP Wednesday that prosecutors had not responded to the offer and said he didn't know whether prosecutors had relayed the offer to any victims as required by state law.
Prosecutors said that violated the gag order.
They also said they have repeatedly contacted "every known victim and family member of a victim ? numbering over one thousand" about possible resolutions of the case, including the death penalty and life in prison without parole.
George Brauchler, the Arapahoe County district attorney, is scheduled to announce Monday whether he will seek the death penalty for Holmes. He has refused repeatedly to comment on the case, citing the gag order.
Pierce O'Farrill, who was shot three times, said he would welcome an agreement that would imprison Holmes for life. The years of court struggles ahead would likely be an emotional ordeal for victims, he said.
"I don't see his death bringing me peace," O'Farrill said. "To me, my prayer for him was that he would spend the rest of his life in prison and hopefully, in all those years he has left, he could find God and ask for forgiveness himself."
A plea bargain would bring finality to the case fairly early so victims and their families can avoid the prolonged trauma of not knowing what will happen, said Dan Recht, a past president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.
"The defense, by making this public pleading, is reaching out to the victims' families," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.
To get around the blockade, British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly.
U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday.
"A good, strong treaty has been blocked," said Britain's chief delegate, Joanne Adamson. "Most people in the world want regulation and those are the voices that need to be heard."
"This is success deferred," she added.
The head of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman, told a group of reporters, "We look forward to this treaty being adopted very soon by the United Nations General Assembly." He declined to predict the result of a vote but said it would be a "substantial majority" in favor.
U.N. member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.
Arms control activists and human rights groups say a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.
Delegates to the treaty-drafting conference said on Wednesday they were close to a deal to approve the treaty, but cautioned that Iran and other countries might attempt to block it. Iran, Syria and North Korea did just that, blocking the required consensus for it to pass.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told Iran's Press TV that Tehran supported the arms trade treaty. But Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the conference that he could not accept the treaty in its current form.
"The achievement of such a treaty has been rendered out of reach due to many legal flaws and loopholes," he said. "It is a matter of deep regret that genuine efforts of many countries for a robust, balanced and non-discriminatory treaty were ignored."
One of those flaws was its failure to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit "acts of aggression," ostensibly referring to rebel groups, he said. The current draft does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.
'HELD HOSTAGE'
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed the Iranian concerns, saying he also objected to the fact that it does not prohibit weapons transfers to rebel groups.
"Unfortunately our national concerns were not taken into consideration," he said. "It can't be accepted by my country."
North Korea's delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty: "This (treaty) is not balanced."
Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats said. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.
North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Russia and China made clear they would not have blocked it but voiced serious reservations about the text and its failure to get consensus. A Russian delegate told the conference that Moscow would have to think hard about signing it if it were approved. India, Pakistan and others complained that the treaty favors exporters and creates disadvantages for arms importers.
If adopted by the General Assembly, the pact will need to be signed and ratified by at least 50 states to enter into force.
Several diplomats and human rights groups that have lobbied hard in favor of the treaty complained that the requirement of consensus for the pact to pass was something that the United States insisted on years ago. That rule gave every U.N. member state the ability to veto the draft treaty.
"The world has been held hostage by three states," said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. "We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional."
"Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated," she added.
The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.
The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.
Washington demanded that the conference be run on the basis of consensus because it wanted to be able to block any treaty that undermined the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms, a sensitive political issue in the United States. Countryman said the draft treaty did not undermine U.S. rights.
The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.
The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Simao)
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.
Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world's largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as "crowd-sourcing," or the "sharing economy."
A plethora of start-ups now help people make money by renting out a spare room, a car, or even a cocktail dress, and Wal-Mart would in effect be inviting people to rent out space in their vehicle and their willingness to deliver packages to others.
Such an effort would, however, face numerous legal, regulatory and privacy obstacles, and Wal-Mart executives said it was at an early planning stage.
Wal-Mart is making a big push to ship online orders directly from stores, hoping to cut transportation costs and gain an edge over Amazon and other online retailers, which have no physical store locations. Wal-Mart does this at 25 stores currently, but plans to double that to 50 this year and could expand the program to hundreds of stores in the future.
Wal-Mart currently uses carriers like FedEx Corp for delivery from stores - or, in the case of a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go that is being tested in five metro areas, its own delivery trucks.
"I see a path to where this is crowd-sourced," Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com in the United States, said in a recent interview with Reuters.
Wal-Mart has millions of customers visiting its stores each week. Some of these shoppers could tell the retailer where they live and sign up to drop off packages for online customers who live on their route back home, Anderson explained.
Wal-Mart would offer a discount on the customers' shopping bill, effectively covering the cost of their gas in return for the delivery of packages, he added.
"This is at the brain-storming stage, but it's possible in a year or two," said Jeff McAllister, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. innovations.
Indeed, the likelihood of this being broadly adopted across the company's network of more than 4,000 stores in the United States is low, according to Matt Nemer, a retail analyst at Wells Fargo Securities.
"I'm sure it will be a test in some stores," he added. "But they may only keep it for metro markets and for higher-priced items."
LEGAL BOUNDARIES
Start-ups such as TaskRabbit and Fiverr already let individuals rent out their time and expertise to companies and people looking for small jobs to be completed.
Zipments was founded in 2010 as a crowd-sourced delivery network that allowed anyone over 18 years old with a vehicle, a text-enabled phone, and a PayPal account to bid on courier services for local businesses.
Such online match-making businesses often push legal boundaries - and a Wal-Mart crowd-sourced delivery program would be no different, according to Nemer.
Online packages delivered by customers may never reach their destination, either through theft or fraud, the analyst said.
Such a crowd-sourced delivery service may not be as reliable as FedEx or United Parcel Service, which have insured drivers, he added.
"You are comfortable with a FedEx or UPS truck in your driveway, but what about a stranger knocking on your door?" Nemer said.
ZIPMENTS EVOLVES
While Zipments started out with a pure crowd-sourcing approach, the company now does more screening of drivers before allowing them to be part of its delivery network, Chief Executive and co-Founder Garrick Pohl said in an interview. It now serves big cities including New York and Chicago.
Theft, fraud and late deliveries have never been a problem, but insurance and licenses were an obstacle, Pohl explained.
Drivers often need personal liability insurance to cover package delivery activities. Cargo insurance is also needed. Zipments self-insures this risk up to $250, but the firm encourages its couriers to buy additional coverage for higher-value packages, Pohl said.
In some areas, like downtown Chicago, people also need a courier license to deliver things, he added.
"Zipments now helps people get all these things set up before allowing them to deliver goods," Pohl said.
Still, he said the issues are not insurmountable, citing pizza restaurants, which have used part-time drivers to deliver pies for years.
"It's a great solution for large retailers like Wal-Mart," Pohl said. "We'd like to see them move quicker, but it's great that they are considering it."
Zipments is trying to provide such services to retailers, although Pohl declined to say which companies the start-up is talking to about this.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr and Jessica Wohl; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Martin Howell and Leslie Gevirtz)
Over the past decade, NYU Florence has offered studio art courses as part of the centerpiece of the heavily arts-centered academic program at Villa la Pietra. What took root as a rumor several weeks ago has now grown into a certainty; that these studio courses are been eliminated and the faculty fired, in what seems a shift to a more political science-focused curriculum.
Beginning next semester, Fall 2013, students at NYU Florence wishing to take studio arts courses?the engaged study of the methods and techniques of the visual arts?can only do so at an institution external to NYU called Studio Art Centers International (SACI), a study abroad center accredited by Bowling Green State University in Ohio.?
These ?outsourced? courses will take the place of those studio courses that have been taught at NYU Florence?s Villa La Pietra by three esteemed faculty members, each of whom have taught at Florence for over 10 years: Alan Pascuzzi, Robert Caracciolo and Patrice Lombardi.
Professor Pascuzzi posted on the student-run?Save NYU Florence Art?Facebook page that NYU Florence Director Ellyn Toscano has been gradually scaling back course offerings for the studio arts courses as well as courses in art history, film, music, and creative writing?the effect of which being that professors now finding they no longer have jobs after this May.
?The reason for closing the art component was based on President Sexton and Ellyn Toscano?s idea to change NYU Florence into a political science-based program,? wrote Pascuzzi.??Political science is now the emphasis.?
The supreme irony of eliminating studio art courses taught on site at Villa La Pietra, the 57-acre estate that was the gift of arts benefactor Sir Harold Acton, is not lost on any of the professors or students affected by the change. Questions have been directed to and subsequently deflected by?Toscano.
Below is the email Toscano sent in response to the numerous emails from students protesting the sudden change and demanding explanations. Professor Caracciolo noted that the faculty affected were not forwarded the email until students took it upon themselves to send it over.
Dear NYU Florence students,
I understand that there are rumors about the future of art history at NYU Florence. I would like to stop these rumors cold, so let me be clear that there is no plan to eliminate the arts at NYU Florence. It would be unthinkable to do so. We will continue to offer students both art history and studio arts; additions to NYU Florence?s curriculum in politics or other social sciences are not in place of art history or studio art.
The art history courses will continue to be offered at NYU Florence as before. They range from Renaissance Art to Florentine Villas, from the Etruscans to Modern Movements in Italian Art. The studio arts courses are a slightly different matter. As we have reflected on these offerings, we are keen to expand them through better facilities, a more complete roster of courses and an opportunity for students to experience the art scene in Florence beyond La Pietra. We plan to move forward with an agreement to offer studio arts through a respected studio art and artist training center. Our expectation is, thanks to this kind of partnership currently under discussion, that we will offer studio arts without interruption. So, as you can see, art history and other humanities courses will continue to be a prominent piece of NYU Florence?s offerings.
Lastly, I have seen some claims that Sir Harold Acton?s bequest to NYU required certain prescribed curriculum in the arts. The Acton gift requires us to maintain his family?s art collection and to use his estate for educational purposes, both of which we do. The inclusion of art history and studio arts in the curriculum is a decision NYU made; it is a natural decision in Florence, and you need not worry ? it is one we intend to stand by.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours,
Ellyn Toscano
One would assume that the decisions to keep, cut or expand courses in New York and abroad would fall under the jurisdiction of the?departments?that?offer the given courses. Yet, surprising is the degree of autonomy that Toscano and other administrators apparently wield on the curriculum and the employment of faculty.
A professor in the Art History department at Washington Square noted that the information they have been receiving from the?administration on the matter has been very opaque; the exact?hierarchy?of and relationship between the directors and administrators at NYU Florence, the Office of Global Affairs, and the?departments?here in New York is unclear. Also unclear is whether the change comes only at the hands of Toscano or if it was a joint decision made with the Office of Global Affairs.
?Collateral damage? ? i.e. the loss of jobs at NYU ? is the Art History department?s primary concern.
The scaling back of the program was accompanied?by unusual and absurd changes to space priorities given to the studio art classes and to the contracts of the arts professors. According to Pascuzzi, the studio courses were moved to rooms too?small?and too inadequate to?accommodate?the volume and needs of students wishing to take the courses.
In an email to NYU Local, Patrice Lombardi, who taught a painting course, said:
?The problem with the whole issue is the lack of communication and transparency on the part of the NYU Florence administration, specifically Ellyn Toscano and her representative for the humanities, Prof. Bruce Edelstein.?The faculty members that have spoken out have said that they showed up to work at the beginning of the Fall semester 2012 to find themselves presented with new contracts they were pressured into signing.?
In the summer of 2012,?changes to Italian labor law?made firing individual workers in private sector jobs easier in a pointed attempt to revive up a sub-par Italian economy and workforce?and?reverse precedent that were??harming productivity growth and discouraging business investment.??According to Lombardi, all faculty salaries were cut by 20% this year.
Lombardi noted that ?the Italian state does not?recognize?programs [like NYU Florence] as universities as they do not confer a final degree. The bizarre upshot of this is that we have contracts that are for teachers in middle schools ? not for university professors.?
Roberto Caracciolo was the third professor to be vocal on the issue. He said in an email to NYU Local:
?I have been teaching two drawing courses at NYU Florence since 1999. This year, because of [that] new Italian labor law I was forced (that or my courses would have been cancelled) to sign a time limited contract that expires in mid-May. In this new contract, which was not shown to me until the day of the beginning of the fall semester [2012], I had to accept a substantial reduction of salary and clauses that are totally unacceptable, such as the university having rights on all that I do even outside of teaching (I am a painter and so are all my new works that I do in my studio in Rome theirs?).
At the beginning of the spring semester I went to talk with the Director of VLP and asked about future plans for the art studio as there were rumors of them being shut down and got generic answers about how the new Italian time-limited contracts cannot be renewed (which is false) and on how all decisions were being taken in New York by the various departments.?
When Caracciolo contacted the?department?that credits students for his studio courses, The Department of Art and Art Professions at Steinhardt, department chair David Darts replied that the decision to offer or not offer art studio courses did not rest with him or the department. When Caracciolo asked Toscano for an?explanation?as to who in directly responsible for determining the curriculum at Florence, he received no reply. ?She simply ignores me and my colleagues,? Caracciolo said, ?to try to get to end of the semester with the least amount of questioning and problems.?
An ?NYU?press release?from June 1st, 2004 announcing Toscano?s appointment as Director of NYU Florence, detailed some of her experience up to that date:
?She is well-versed in government policies with regard to public diplomacy, educational exchanges, and cultural diplomacy; moreover, she has had significant expertise in fundraising and program planning??Since 1990, Ms. Toscano ? who speaks Italian ? has served as chief of staff and counsel to Congressman Jos? Serrano, an association that has spanned some 20 years overall. From 1988 to 1991, she had a private law practice, specializing in arts, entertainment, and publishing. Prior to that, she had served as counsel to the New York State Assembly Committee on Education for nine years, during which time she also worked with Mr. Serrano.?
Her expertise suggests a great deal of administrative ongoings, which may in turn come at a cost to some sensitivities that guide the decisions of those with a?training more deeply rooted in academia.
An additional concern of students and faculty is the calibre of the teaching staff at SACI compared to NYU. Courses at SACI are also far cheaper, a fact which may give an indication of the quality of the education; a 15-credit semester costs a student $11,900 in tuition and fees while NYU Florence will continue to charge just over $21,600. To whom or to what resources that extra $10k per semester per student will be devoted is unclear. We can only speculate as to the motivations for outsourcing the flagship art courses to a off-site?institution.
The Art History department at Washington Square is to issue a statement to students and faculty within the next few days. We await their official response addressing the issue.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Mar-2013
Share ] 
Over the past decade, NYU Florence has offered studio art courses as part of the centerpiece of the heavily arts-centered academic program at Villa la Pietra. What took root as a rumor several weeks ago has now grown into a certainty; that these studio courses are been eliminated and the faculty fired, in what seems a shift to a more political science-focused curriculum.