COMPRESSION
APRIL-MAY 2000
Iwo Jima Gift
John Cork, himself a combat photographer, has donated to FSU's Institute on World War II and the Human Experience a signed and numbered copy of Joe Rosenthal's picture of the raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. This photo of the Marines hoisting the national colors is, without a doubt, the outstanding combat picture of World War II. It now hangs in President Talbot D'Alemberte's office, symbolizing FSU's commitment to preserving the wartime generation's legacy of sacrifice and duty well done. The picture is remarkable not only for its dramatic composition of U.S. servicemen in combat, but also for the crispness of its optics and the clarity of vision focused on the citizen soldier. Rosenthal's photographic image outclasses all others in summing up the national effort and heroism under fire during World War II. - William Oldson, professor and director, Institute on World War II and the Human Experience.
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Grad named circuit judge
Charles Francis, 51, a graduate of Florida State and the Florida
State College of Law, is a new circuit judge in Florida's 2nd
Judicial Circuit.
A veteran real-estate attorney, Francis was appointed by Gov.
Jeb Bush to fill a judgeship in the circuit that covers Franklin,
Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties.
New top lawyer
Tallahassee attorney Richard McFarlain, a senior partner at
McFarlain, Wiley, Cassedy & Jones, has replaced FSU's chief
general counsel, Alan Sundberg, who is returning to private practice.
A former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Sund-berg
took the newly created job in early 1997.
McFarlain earned his law degree at Stetson University in 1964.
From 1973 to 1974, he served as special counsel for the American
Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility in Washington,
D.C., as part of the Watergate investigation.
More hurricanes
The coasts along the Gulf of Mexico have entered a devastating
period of more and stronger hurricanes, inflicting greater damage,
FSU's James Elsner said in a February speech to the annual meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Elsner, an associate professor of geography, said that the densely
populated parts of the Gulf Coast are particularly likely to
suffer catastrophic social and economic damage.
In the late 1990s, he said, severe storms made landfall in the
United States more than twice as often as in the previous 30
years.
He said the primary reason for the increased hurricane risk is
a switch in the North Atlantic Oscillation, a cycle of variability
in ocean circulation and atmospheric pressure.
That North Atlantic cycle may have more influence on the waters
of the Caribbean and Atlantic than the Pacific's alternation
between El Niño and La Niña.
Some hurricanes would continue to follow a more northerly path
up the east coast, hitting land between South Carolina and Maine,
but Elsner warned the Gulf Coast in particular.
"The Gulf Coast has experienced tre-mendous population and
construction growth over the past 30 years, and we have greatly
increased our vulnerability to devastating damage by developing
heavily in these coastal regions over a period when strong storms
were less frequent," Elsner said.
State Climatologist
James O'Brien, an FSU professor who is well known for predicting
significant weather patterns, has been named Florida's State
Climatologist.
Director of the FSU Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies,
he is internationally recognized for his research and expertise
on El Niño and La Niña.
The 1999 Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, he runs the
Florida State Climate Center, which provides climate information
to government agencies and the public.
"Weather and climate are important to all aspects of Florida
- farming, tourism, fishing, government, media and citizens,"
he said. "We want to make sure climate information is readily
available for private citizens and everyone who works in or visits
Florida."