Zircon fission track and U–Pb dating methods applied to São Paulo and Taubaté Basins located in the southeast Brazil

Zircon samples from the Cenozoic São Paulo and Taubaté Basins and Mantiqueira Mountain Range (southeast Brazil) were concomitantly dated by zircon Fission Track Method (FTM) and in situ U–Pb dating method. While FTM detrital-zircon data are ideally used to provide low-temperature information, U–Pb single detrital grain ages record the time of zircon formation in igneous or high grade metamorphic environments. This methodology may be used to study the possible sources of the basins sediments. The results suggest that the São Paulo Basin is composed of sediments from just one source, the Mantiqueira Mountain Range. On the other hand, the Taubaté Basin presents further sediment sources besides the Mantiqueira Mountain Range

A popular Indonesian preacher: The significance of AA Gymnastiar

Aa Gymnastiar (Gym) is a popular Indonesian Muslim preacher who seems to be now at the pinnacle of his fame. He regularly gives advice to the head of state and to ministers and yet at the same time his approach to Islam appeals to all sections of the national Muslim community. His is a familiar face in newspaper columns and above all on television screens; Aa Gym has a masterful command of the media. This article describes and accounts for his popularity and discusses it in terms of continuity and change in the rise and decline of Muslim celebrities in Indonesia. It points out the difference between Gym and some obvious forerunners such as the scholar Hamka, and stresses that the nature of Gym's appeal is new in as much as he does not come from within the circle of traditional families of Muslim ulama. He seems to draw his information as much from secular sources of self-help manuals as from books of Sufi wisdom. Although very popular and influential among the general circle of believers, he is regarded with some suspicion by those who criticize his sufistic leanings and lack of an orthodox Muslim education. The article concludes by arguing that Gym and his approach to the implementation of Muslim precepts is more representative of the nature of Islam in Indonesia today than the activities of terrorists