The story of the quest for a real-life Shangri-La in the darkest heart of the Himalayas– a century-long obsession to reach the sacred hidden center of one of the world's last uncharted realms. At the far eastern end of the Himalayas in Tibet lies the Tsangpo River Gorge, known as “the great romance of geography” during the nineteenth century's golden age of exploration. Here the mighty Tsangpo funnels into an impenetrable canyon three miles deep, walled off from the outside world by twenty-five thousand foot peaks. Like the earthly paradise of Shangri-La immortalized in James Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, the Tsangpo River Gorge is a refuge revered for centuries by Tibetan Buddhists–and later in Western imagination–as a sanctuary in times of strife as well as a gateway to nirvana. The Siege of Shangri-La tells the story of this fabled land's exploration as both a geographical and spiritual destination–and chronicles the discovery at the end of the last millennium of the truth behind the myths and rumors about it. Veteran journalist Michael McRae traces the gorge's exploratory history from the clandestine missions of surveyor-spies called pundits and botanical expeditions of naturalists in the early twentieth century to the recent investigations of scholars, adventurers, and pilgrims seeking the "Hidden Falls," of the Tsangpo, which purportedly rivals Niagara in size and serves as the gateway to paradise. Each explorer's narrative provides increasing evidence of why the gorge has been mythologized in Eastern and Western lore as one of the world's most alluring blanks on the map–and a supreme test of human will. Taking readers on a guided tour of the gorge's landscape, physical and metaphysical, McRae presents an insightful look at the pursuit of glory and enlightenment that has played out in this mysterious land with sometimes disastrous consequences. The Siege of Shangri-La is a fascinating journey through the inner recesses of a remote, mystical world and the minds of those who have attempted to reach it. From the Hardcover edition.

Since the 19th century, Westerners have laid siege to the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet. The colonial British saw it as a strategic prize, 1920's botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward saw it as a geographical puzzle to solve and Oxford educated American Tibet scholar Ian Baker (discoverer of the hidden waterfall in the 1990s) saw it as a hidden Buddhist realm. More recently kayakers have seen the rapids as the last great whitewater challenge. They paid with their lives. For all, the reality was unimportant. All heaped their own perceptions on the mythology that had come before. This title combines adventure, travel, history and myth to tell the story of the search for the hidden falls of Shangri-la.

The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction: Volume One is a comprehensive writer's guide for the amateur to semi-pro writer on the genre of science fiction. The book begins with a warning for new science fiction writers about the pitfalls and clich(r)s that often plague a first science fiction story. It finishes with practical information on how to present, sell and promote a finished novel and what to prepare for once the writer has achieved success. Topics range from alien creation to world building, fan fiction and space travel. EPPIE 2007: Finalist (non-fiction category) Contributors include Michele Acker, Jeanne Allen, Piers Anthony, Milena Benini, Orson Scott Card, Carol Hightshoe, Ian Irvine, Dave A. Law, Wil Mccarthy, Michael Mcrae, Tina Morgan, Bob Nailor, Darin Park, Kim Richards, Simon Rose, And Bud Sparhawk.

Aspiring engineers will get a head start with this introduction to the past, present, and future of engineering. Enter a world of engineering with detailed explanations of the history of discovery and innovation that has made modern technology possible. Engineering Made Simple presents the fundamentals of making and creating, from the physics of flying to the chemistry of manufacturing. Each of the ten chapters will connect readers with a topic that helps make sense of engineering. Learn what it means to be an engineer, understand the laws scientists use to push the limits of speed and safety, and discover a past—and anticipate a future—of amazing machines and constructions. Each section will help aspiring young engineers engage with relevant areas in their school’s curriculum, complete with knowledge-testing quizzes. Do you like the idea of designing and creating a better world? With this book, young people will discover just how simple—and exciting—engineering can be.

Coach McRae reviews basics for coaches, parents, and players. Skills are broken down into easy-to-understand detail, providing a solid base for those learning and teaching the fundamentals.

Phishing is the use of social engineering and electronic communications such as emails to try and illicit sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and financial information. This form of identity theft has become a rampant problem in today's society. Phishing attacks have cost financial institutions millions of dollars per year and continue to do so. Today's defense against phishing attacks primarily consists of trying to take down the phishing web site as quickly as possible before it can claim too many victims. This thesis demonstrates that is possible to track down a phisher to the IP address of the phisher's workstation rather than innocent machines used as intermediaries. By using web bugs and honeytokens on the fake web site forms the phisher presents, one can log accesses to the web bugs by the phisher when the attacker views the results of the forms.