One of the titles in a series of topographic maps covering much of north-west Africa, produced as part of the IMW* project in 1960’s. Each map covers an area spanning 6° in longitude & 4° in latitude. There is some variation in colouring & the depiction of terrain, but hill-shading, spot heights & contours are used to show the general relief. Additional graphics show features such as dunes, rock outcrops, cliffs, sand areas, escarpments, marshes, seasonal lakes & watercourses, & areas liable to flooding. Bathymetric contours are also included. Communications detail

Includes:: roads, major trails & railways, although there is some inconsistency in colouring & the extent of classification, e.g. not all maps distinguish seasonal roads. On most maps intermediate road distances are indicated on main routes. Symbols show airports, mosques, mines, oil & gas fields, lighthouses, ruins & significant isolated buildings. Administrative boundaries are marked & latitude & longitude lines are drawn at 1° intervals, with further margin ticks at 1’ intervals. The map legend is in French only on some sheets, & in English & French on others.* The International Map of the World was a project conceived in the early 20th century to compile a world map series at 1:1, 000, 000 through the efforts of participating nations. The value of the program has declined since 1970 & the IMW is no longer regarded as an active international series.

...

The deepest cave on earth was a prize that had remained unclaimed for centuries, long after every other ultimate discovery had been made. This is the story of the men & women who risked everything to find it, earning their place in history beside the likes of Peary, Amundsen, Hillary, & Armstrong. In 2004, two great scientist-explorers attempted to find the bottom of the world. Bold, American Bill Stone was committed to the vast Cheve Cave, located in southern Mexico & deadly even by supercave standards. On the other side of the globe, legendary Ukrainian explorer Alexander Klimchouk
- Stone`s opposite in temperament & style
- had targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the Republic of Georgia. ” Blind Descent” explores both the brightest & darkest aspects of the timeless human urge to discover
- to be first. It is also a thrilling epic about a pursuit that makes even extreme mountaineering & ocean exploration pale by comparison. These supercavers spent months in multiple camps almost two vertical miles deep & many more miles from their caves` exits. They had to contend with thous&-foot drops, deadly flooded tunnels, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, & much more. Perhaps even worse were the psychological horrors produced by weeks plunged into absolute, perpetual darkness, beyond all hope of rescue, including a particularly insidious derangement called ” The Rapture”. ” Blind Descent” is a testament to human survival & endurance
- & to two extraordinary men whose relentless pursuit of greatness led them to heights of triumph & depths of tragedy neither could have imagined.



...

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is another collection of beautiful stories from the lyrically unconventional imagination of Haruki Murakami. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us & the things we might wish for. Whether in a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii or in the vicelike grip of everyday life, Murakami’s wonderfully inventive characters confront loss, sexuality, the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distance between those who ought to be closest of all. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of the human experience & condition in ways that are instructive, surprising & relentlessly entertaining. ...

A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An ophthalmologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. & when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth & the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped. No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. This is not anarchy, this is blindness. ...

Say goodbye to Ruby Redfort: every smart kid`s smart kid. The mind-blowing conclusion to the thrilling series by award-winning author Lauren Child. Ruby Redfort: undercover agent, code-cracker & thirteen-year-old genius
- you can count on her when the ice starts to crack. All good things come to an end... Ruby Redfort is running scared, a whole bunch of people want her dead & worst of all one of them is on her team. But just who is this agent of doom? You can run, Ruby, but you can`t hide...
...

From the author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell`s international bestseller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a revolution in the understanding of the mind. An art expert sees a ten-million-dollar sculpture & instantly spots it`s a fake. A marriage analyst knows within minutes whether a couple will stay together. A fire-fighter suddenly senses he has to get out of a blazing building. A speed dater clicks with the right person... This book is all about those moments when we `know` something without knowing why. Here Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomenon of `blink`, showing how a snap judgement can be far more effective than a cautious decision. By trusting your instincts, he reveals, you`ll never think about thinking in the same way again. ” Trust my snap judgement, buy this book: you`ll be delighted”. (The New York Times). ” Compelling, fiendishly clever”. (Evening Standard). ” Brilliant.. .the implications for business, let alone love, are vast”. (Observer). ” Superb.. .this wonderful book should be compulsory reading”. (New Statesman). ” Blink might just change your life”. (Esquire). ” Should you buy this book? You already know the answer to that”. (Independent on Sunday). Author, journalist, cultural commentator & intellectual adventurer, Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine. His first book The Tipping Point captured the world`s attention with its theory that a curiously small change can have unforeseen effects. His other international bestselling books are Outliers, which looks at the stories of exceptional individuals & reveals the secrets of their success, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking & What The Dog Saw, a collection of his most provocative & entertaining New Yorker pieces. ...

The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler`s gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine &, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, & crucial to troops` resilience
- even partly explaining German victory in 1940. The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired & confused decision-making, with Hitler & his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.
...

The sensational German bestseller on the overwhelming role of drug-taking in the Third Reich, from Hitler to housewives. ` Bursting with interesting facts` Vice ` Extremely interesting.. .a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched` Ian Kershaw The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler`s gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine &, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, & crucial to troops` resilience
- even partly explaining German victory in 1940. The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired & confused decision-making, with Hitler & his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.
...

The German campaign in France during the summer of 1940 was pivotal to Hitler`s ambitions & fundamentally affected the course of the Second World War. Having squabbled about fighting methods right up to the start of the campaign, the German forces provided the Fuhrer with a swift, efficient & decisive military victory over the Allied forces. In achieving in just six weeks what their fathers had failed to accomplish during the four years of the First World War, Germany altered the balance of power in Europe at a stroke. Yet, as Lloyd Clark shows in this enthralling new book, it was far from a foregone conclusion. Blitzkrieg tells the story of the campaign, while highlighting the key technologies, decisions & events that led to German success, & details the mistakes, good fortune & chronic weaknesses in their planning process & approach to war fighting. There are also compelling portraits of the officers who played key roles, including Heinz Guderian, Ewin Rommel, Kurt Student, Charles de Gaulle & Bernard Montgomery. Clark argues that far from being undefeatable, the France 1940 campaign revealed Germany & its armed forces to be highly vulnerable
- a fact dismissed by Hitler as he began to plan for his invasion of the Soviet Union
- & offers a gripping reassessment of the myths that have built up around one of the Second World War`s greatest military victories.

...

In late 1911, the final year of the Edwardian age, a British naval captain & a Norwegian conqueror of the North-West Passage embarked on the most gruelling race ever run. Their aim was not only to lead the first expedition to the South Pole, but also to live to tell the tale. Six months later, Robert Falcon Scott & four of his party were dead, while Roald Amundsens victory had been wired around the world. A century on, the debate still rages. Was Scott unfortunate or incompetent? Was Amundsen a genius or lucky? In a unique television experiment, two teams led by the Norwegian explorer Rune Gjeldnes & the television anthropologist Bruce Parry, star of the BBC2 series Tribe, set out to recreate the famous race. Wearing the same type of clothing as their predecessors, surviving on the same diet, using the same equipment & travelling over the same distance, they seek to answer some of the burning questions. Blizzard is a dramatic chronicle of both the original epic, & its reconstruction. Jasper Reess narrative skilfully intertwines past & present as he brings to life an extraordinary cast of characters. They may be separated from their predecessors by nearly a hundred years, but the modern race teams soon discover that, in polar travel, nothing changes. Among the hardships they face are uncontrollable dogs, inedible food, invisible crevasses, unimaginable cold, all in an unending prairie of snow. Incorporating the gripping diaries of Parry & Gjeldnes, Blizzard paints an astonishing picture of comradeship in the face of physical danger & psychological torment in the most life-threatening habitat on earth. ...