Spirits of the Jaguar: The Natural History and Ancient Civilizations of the Caribbean and Central America

Book Description

The Ultimate Desert Handbook is the first truly comprehensive handbook on desert travel and exploration, presenting the desert not as an alien environment to be overcome or endured, but rather as a fascinating opportunity for anyone eager to learn about and enjoy a different kind of outdoors experience. Assuming no prior desert know-how, this detailed guide is intended for hikers, backpackers, campers, and 4WD vehicle travelers, along with a wide range of other adventure enthusiasts pursuing their chosen activities into the desert - rock climbers, birding enthusiasts, pilots, nature lovers, and wildlife/landscape photographers. Even dayhikers and occasional visitors to desert destinations will find the book easy to understand and extremely useful. The Ultimate Desert Handbook is packed with information and includes descriptions and histories of deserts around the world, a complete survey of the North American deserts, their indigenous peoples, plants, and wildlife; expert advice, including historical background and the latest technical developments in desert hiking, backpacking, camping, equipment, footwear, and clothing. Also included are chapters on desert mountain biking, first aid, wildlife observation & photography (including tips on film cameras, digicams, and night optics), desert hazards and survival, finding & treating water from all manner of desert sources, as well as preparing and using desert vehicles and animal transport. Last but not least is the most thorough section on desert navigation ever published - from using the stars to map, compass, sextant, and the Global Positioning System - and easy-to-follow advice on everything from selecting a low-impact campsite to signaling and rescue communications. * A Ragged Mountain Press Outdoors Paperback * 5½ × 8½ * 291pp * 80 photos and illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Read it and be prepared!.......2006-08-17

Awesome book! We bought this book as a guide to prepare for a backpacking trip to the West Texas deserts of Big Bend and the Devil's River earlier this year and its advice came in handy on more than a few occasions, especially the section on camping advice, equipment, and clothing. The book's use of real-life excerpts of news stories (from those who didn't take the desert seriously enough) was effective at getting the book's message across on to anyone preparing to hike the desert, as well as the drive back. In fact we ran into a couple who didn't bring enough water and when they got back to the trailhead, their truck had blown a radiator hose. They were hurting. As the Scout motto says, read this and be prepared before you go.

It's the best desert hiking and survival book.........2006-07-21

The Ultimate Desert Handbook is the best book on desert hiking and survival I have found, and I have read them all. That's not just my opinion, but also that of all my friends who like to backpack and hike in the desert. Unlike other books that claim to cover the subject of desert hiking and survival, this one actually does so. Water, acclimatizing the body, clothing and equipment, navigation, backpacks and gear, information on different deserts of the world - nothing is left out.

Johnson's book is actually both well-written and very well organized, with the most important aspects, such as finding water, trip planning, etc. in the first chapters, progressing in order. The criticism of the book as somehow biased towards vehicle travel is completely off-base, and makes me wonder how carefully the critic read the material. It has a single solitary chapter on desert vehicles and preparing them for desert conditions (makes sense, because unlike other places, you may have to drive for miles through remote, waterless areas just to get to the trailhead!). In fact, the book is primarily oriented towards hikers and backpackers - probably 250 of the book's 296 pages are devoted to the subject - especially those preparing for treks in remote desert. The book actually covers a wide range of subjects - adapting to different desert conditions, trip planning, backpacking and camping gear, desert first aid, snakes and other hazards, and it has the best chapter on pathfinding and navigation (read: staying alive) in the desert I've found to date.

As to gear and equipment, the author does take space to provide suggestions on advantages and disadvantages of many items, including the newer methods of water purification, ultralight equipment, GPS receivers, water storage, Camelbaks, and so on. But rather than the usual generic discussion, the information is nicely geared to desert hiking: in the case of drinking tube systems, right down to the need to insulate one's drinking tube and choose light-reflecting colors, a tip omitted by other books. I personally found all of this very useful information, and I can't see how it possible how learning something about one's gear for such a different environment as a desert could be either impractical or frivolous. The author did probably assume the reader is intelligent enough to realize that you can't possibly bring everything along, and to make one's own choices regarding total pack weight. Suggestions are just that, not everyone will agree with them, but such is life. For myself, I'd certainly want to know the practical applications and limitations of various types of gear and clothing, especially as they apply to desert hiking. If you don't like it, you can skip the chapter - doh! I find it very strange that anyone could condemn a desert travel book with a single-star rating because it allegedly reviews 'too much' equipment, then criticize it yet again with the trivial complaint that the book left out the manufacturer's address for one's preferred brand of compass. Bizarre.

I found the Ultimate Desert Handbook to be the first desert hiking book I've read that acknowledges the differences between the major U.S. desert regions AND provides information throughout the book useful to each desert region, not to mention other deserts of the world. This material is provided throughout the book, and is NOT limited to the brief descriptions in the introductory chapter. This is significant, as many hiking books that purport to deal with desert travel or survival base a lot of their material on experiences gained from one particular desert, guidance that isn't always applicable to others.

There's a lot of material here I've never found in other desert survival books (or nature 'walking' guides for that matter), and that includes the U.S. Army and Air Force survival manuals. For instance, I've always read that barrel cactus may be used for water in an emergency - but was surprised to learn that there are several look-alike subspecies with pulp that are poisonous or sickening, something the Native Americans knew but apparently the Air Force doesn't, so this book tells how to identify them, just in case. Many books tell you about the solar survival still and transpiration bag, but the author takes care to point out their fatal flaws. You can find information in this book I've never seen in any other hiking book that could only be of value to someone walking long distances in the desert: how to work primitive, wind, or solar-powered windmills, find directions from winds and eroded rocks, siphon water out of a covered aqueduct, hide a water cache, hike lava fields or sand dunes, find directions from desert tracks and trails, treat desert blindness, or perform first aid for arterial bleeding. Again, not something you're likely to find in the Audubon guides. Although the book isn't strictly a desert survival text, it's no surprise to see that it's very popular with park rangers, thru-hikers, desert expedition members, and those familiar with extreme desert travel.

Now, there are some things the book isn't, which is obvious to anyone who bothers to look over the chapter titles. It isn't a nature guide to desert flora and fauna - beyond telling you which plants, animals, and insects can hurt or help you, which is the point of the book. For example, we get extensive advice on avoiding potential injury from rattlesnakes (individualized to species where necessary), while learning there's no need to stomp on the local tarantula that comes close to your campfire. The book does takes care to demonstrate the fragility of the desert environment where indicated and provides advice on low-impact hiking and camping. This duality may bother some people used to strict genres such as 'hiking book', 'survival book', etc., but not to fear - it's all seamlessly integrated into a comprehensive guide to desert hiking, survival and travel. And since the book deals with BOTH desert hiking and desert survival, it teaches not only what to do in case of disaster, but how to prevent disasters in the first place through preparation, acquisition of expertise, and development of one's hiking and pathfinding skills. The book also isn't a long, novelistic narrative of one man's voyage of discovery and personal growth, so it could hardly be criticized for not including such material (how anyone could mistake it for such a book is baffling to me). The author is more concerned with providing objective information (as he should be in this type of book) to the reader rather than an homage to Ed Abbey, great a novelist as he was.

So, if you're a big-city dweller just looking for a good winter read, or the Latin scientific appellation for the local deer mouse, you'll need to go somewhere else. But if you need the best desert hiking and survival guide, this is it.

Overrated-Oversized-Inadequate-Superficial.......2006-07-14

Although it may be of some use as an introduction to persons who have never walked on a desert trail or been to the American southwest, and though the book constitutes a useful primer on equipment, navigation, & survival techniques, the book is poorly organized and edited with much less information than one might expect from a book of its physical size. It is not handy enough to throw into a knapsack nor is it well designed or beautiful enough to qualify as a coffee table book. The author appears to have done just enough research to cover the subject and satisfy his editors. There are no first hand descriptions of desert hiking or any first hand descriptions at all to suggest the author has any experience whatsoever. Less than one page is devoted to animal transport, ten pages to bicycle transport, and 32 pages to motor vehicles. One may thus conclude that the author has probably never walked more than a few hundred yards from a motor vehicle. The extremely modest effort made to be inclusive (to justify the title) by tackling all the world's deserts results in a text that suffers exceedingly with regard to specific characteristics of North American desert regions namely the Great Basin, Mohave, Sonoran, & Chiricahua. The few paragraphs dedicated to each of these is utterly insufficient in doing more than indicating their geographic location. The list of plants, animals, and insects for all is inexplicably conjoined and superficial (only 43 species of flora and fauna including reptiles and insects) and inadequately illstrated. Albeit a number of new species are introduced in the chapters on hazards and survival but these are not illustrated or very well described as to habits, distribution, & frequency. So much more is available from any decent nature guide (Peterson's, Audubon, etc.) Indeed the Golden Guides offer better coverage of Southwestern desert life & local culture despite their diminutive size. The author includes many lists of recommended supplies but little explication as to the rationale for their inclusion or their practical use. The author simply cribbed official sources including military manuals for much of this information. The assumption seems to be that you can carry all this stuff in a motor vehicle or helicopter. Though poor in describing North American desert regions and their ecology the book is nevertheless a decent introduction to certain technical aspects of desert hiking such as navigation and survival strategies. However all this information is readily available in other more thorough and entertaining hiking, camping, and survival guides. The skimpy two page bibliography inexplicably omits anything specific to the ecology of American deserts or to any of the well known, extremely useful, and entertaining works by Colin Fletcher ('The Man Who Walked Through Time', and 'The Complete Walker') or those by Edward Abbey ('Desert Solitaire') nor does it contain any comments on the usefulness or entertainment value of what is listed (How useful or entertaining is the ca. 1325 travel description by Abu Ibn Battuta?) The 'Resources' appendix is likewise superficial and omits a source for an important orienting product discussed and illustrated in the text (Suunto). In short, the book appears to be an editorial commission that though workmanlike as a piece of technical writing it utterly lacks any flavor or sense of what is purported to be described. The most useful chapter in the book is probably 'Water Supplies' with the paragraph on hyponatremia being the most important but there is no discussion as to how to make your own remedy for sodium deficiency until six chapters later when an inset describes the internationally accepted re-hydration formula.

Almost a necessity for desert backpacking .......2006-03-05

This is without doubt a really useful book on desert backpacking and general camping and hiking. It's not a trail book, but really a general and in-depth training guide on exploring deserts and planning/preparation for such places. Unlike a lot of these types of books, this one is written in an absorbing manner. The chapters flow naturally, one to the other, and have plenty of illustrations (all black/white, though).

I picked up this book on a whim before heading out to Arizona and Utah and was surprised at how well it covered the subjects you might expected to need when hiking the desert. For example, in the desert navigation chapter, you aren't just told to 'carry a map and compass and look for landmarks'. The book leads you step-by-step through reading and understanding a map, different kinds of desert (rock, dune desert, etc.), likely desert landmarks and common mistakes in desert navigating, how to choose the right compass and GPS receiver, the weak points of these instruments, how to recognize trail 'signs' or traffic, and on and on.

Desert planning and equipment is also a great chapter. What boot soles work well on desert rock, what shoes to wear in loose sand, how to plan water loads, desert camping tips, how desert heat and different terrain will affect your mileage, etc. The author illustrates nearly every point with real-life news accounts of desert survivors (and victims) who experienced the issues encountered in desert situations.

By the time you reach the end of the book you know how to plan a desert hike, buy the right hiking and camping equipment and clothing, employ first aid for desert illnesses or heat exposure, avoid plant/animal dangers, survive if you get into trouble, and get your truck (or mountain bike!) desert-ready. Not bad.

In conclusions, this is the best outdoors guide I've read in a long time. Definitely check this book out if you are planning a desert trip.

Highly recommended.......2006-01-24

I found Mark Johnon's book both interesting and highly informative. He thoroughly covers all the areas you would expect in a book on desert survival (shelter, water, navigation, plants & animals, first aid, etc.) then adds useful information on desert transportation and photography. He manages to cover all these topics in sufficient depth without droning on forever and boring you.

The author's warnings regarding suspicious people and unexploded ordinance are sound and valuable advice. I was surprised to see that one reviewer considered this hysterics. I grew up in the South and remember reading a newspaper account of someone injured by an old shell from guns silent since 1865. I suspect unexploded bombs from WWII could be at least as dangerous. The same reviewer also appeared to think map care and being properly equipped were unnecessary as well, so I guess we'll just have to disagree.

Customer Reviews:

You will learn from this book, and enjoy it........2007-08-17

I found myself somewhat overwhelmed at my local bookstore by the number of books they had for learning German, so I decided to go with the easiest, most user friendly book they had, and picked up this one. I am very happy I did. I have really learned quite a bit from this book and have enjoyed doing it. This book has taught me enough, to know that I can in fact learn German, and has encouraged me to contiue onto more in depth books. Even though I agree, a CD would have made this so much better, the pronuciation guides are really excellent. The sticky labels are really a great way to not only learn a word, but remember it. If you're not sure you want to learn a language (or if you have to learn one and quickly) this is a really great book to start off with. Granted I spent more than 10 minutes a day on it, but only because I enjoyed learning from this book.

Super way to learn.......2007-07-07

After purchasing this book I took a college course - guess what, this book was the curriculum. Excellent book with lots of pictures and many engaging exercises.

Painless German Lessons.......2007-06-03

I'm using this book to teach a group of senior citicens to speak and understand basic level German. The pictures are great and the exercises are very helpful. The book focuses on learning words and phrases in an organized manner and does not frighten learners with grammar and sentence structure. I think an audio CD would go well with this, just so the audience would have a way to practice at home, or while traveling. Don't let the title mislead you...it takes more than 10 minutes to learn...practicing 10 minutes several times a day will do the trick. With language it's all about repetition.

Good exercise, but only as reinforcement.......2006-08-31

The author seems to have her heart in the right place and the book is well organized, but I really doubt anyone will learn more than number, colors, or other such items.

I've been working through a number of German books in my middle(ish) aged quest to be bilingual so I'm not a total beginner. I wanted an exercise book to do over lunch and I found this book on sale ( <$5). I would say I got about that amount of knowledge out of it.

The matching, fill in the blanks, and crossword puzzles were good, but so much is left out that you can't really understand any of what you are doing, you are just memorizing. For example, the author has you conjugate the verb 'sprechen' but never mentions it is an irregular verb that changes to 'du sprichst'. Later, the sentence structure where a second verb is unconjugated and moved to the end of the sentence is used by the author, but is never mentioned to the reader.

It was a good way to keep my head in German, but I can't say I got very much from the book.

Finally: A guide that makes sense!.......2006-07-11

After many books on Italian, French, Spanish, I finally found a learning guide that makes sense. Chapter 1: the alphabet. Chapter 2: key question words (who, what, where, when, why, how, how much). Chapter 3: Odds 'n ends (the words for "the" and "a"). And so on. All words are shown phonetically, as well as how they are spelled in the native German. Tear-out sheets for reviewing on the go. Peel-off stickers to put around the house. This one seems to have it all.

GERMAN in 10 minutes a day® AUDIO CD (10 Minutes a Day)

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German Audio CD Course

GERMAN in 10 minutes a day® AUDIO CD (10 Minutes a Day)
Kristine K. Kershul
Manufacturer: Bilingual Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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German in 10 Minutes a Day® (10 Minutes a Day Series)
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ASIN: 1931873895
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Product Description

The time-tested, user-friendly "10 minutes a day®" Series has sold millions of copies and has been successfully used by travelers, students, and people just curious about other cultures and languages. Now enjoy the advantages of hearing the language spoken while you read and write along in the book. "GERMAN in 10 minutes a day® AUDIO CD" includes: A copy of the book "GERMAN in 10 minutes a day®", Six AUDIO CDs in a handy, durable wallet for easy carrying, 15 voices of all ages, male and female, from a variety of countries to help develop an ear for accents, High quality audio production with music and sound effects, making it an enjoyable listening experience, and Listen and repeat exercises to provide practice for interactions while traveling. "GERMAN in 10 minutes a day® AUDIO CD" is a fun, dynamic and engaging way to begin your love affair with German. Join the millions who have used and enjoyed the "10 minutes a day®" Series to widen their horizons. From the Publisher Bilingual Books, Inc. has these three wonderful lines of language instruction titles: 10 minutes a day® Books Language Map® Phrase Guides 10 minutes a day® AUDIO CDs For the very best in effective language learning, join the thousands of satisfied customers who have made Bilingual Books one of the most trusted names in language publishing. Start learning a language today!

Customer Reviews:

German Audio CD Course.......2007-07-23

The course is very good. Both the CDs and the book have a very good material to learn in an easy way the language. The only thing is that the description of the product doesn't say this book is the SAME as the one sold alone (paper copy). In the picture of the products they have different front pages, so I thought they had different material. When I got the products, I found out I had two SAME books.

German In Minutes a Day (10 Minutes a Day)

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German In Minutes a Day (10 Minutes a Day)
Kristine K. Kershul
Manufacturer: Bilingual Booksinc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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German in 10 Minutes a Day
Kristine K. Kershul
Manufacturer: Bilingual Books
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: B000J4NUA4

German in 10 Minutes a Day (Menu guide & sticky labels included)

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German in 10 Minutes a Day (Menu guide & sticky labels included)
Kristine Kershul
Manufacturer: Sunset
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PCNZTG

German in 10 Minutes a Day: Library Edition (10 Minutes a Day)

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German in 10 Minutes a Day: Library Edition (10 Minutes a Day)
Kristine K. Kershul
Manufacturer: Bilingual Books (WA)
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Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1931873267

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German in 10 Minutes a Day
Kris Kershul
Manufacturer: Bilingual Books Inc.,U.S.
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German in 10 Minutes a Day, Illustrated Workbook & 4 Audio Cassettes

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German in 10 Minutes a Day, Illustrated Workbook & 4 Audio Cassettes
M.A., Santa Barbara, Special Consultant (third edition); Cindy Jackson Kristine Kershul
Manufacturer: Sunset Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VEVI0Q

Product Description

"A Practical, Fast, Easy Way to Learn German: * 128 page illustrated Workbook; builds basic conversational skills in 23 easy steps * Stick-on Labels; link objects with words for effortless learning * Cut-out Menu Guide; goes conveniently in pocket or purse for ease in restaurant ordering * Four 75-minute Audio Cassettes; keyed to workbook exercises provide practice hearing and speaking German; increase your word power with an English-to-German glossary * German-English & English-German Glossaries put words you'll need while traveling at your fingertips * Flash Cards; make practice drills fun * and... word games, crossword puzzles, and other aids that make language-learning fun." [from back of package case]

Freshman Dreams (Freshman Dorm, No 5)
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Freshman Dreams (Freshman Dorm, No 5)
Linda A. Cooney
Manufacturer: Harpercollins (Mm)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Dreams take flight.(Sports)(Freshman Tommy Skipper already has the UO pole vault record): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
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Dreams take flight.(Sports)(Freshman Tommy Skipper already has the UO pole vault record): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Manufacturer: The Register Guard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008282NC
Release Date: 2005-07-31

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on April 5, 2004. The length of the article is 1242 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Dreams take flight.(Sports)(Freshman Tommy Skipper already has the UO pole vault record)
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: April 5, 2004
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: E1

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Freshman Dreams (Freshman Dorm, No 5)
Linda A. Cooney
Manufacturer: Harpercollins (Mm)
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ASIN: B000OEXS4M

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