Long before Judy Garland sang Over the Rainbow, the denizens of Oz had already captivated the American reading public. The quintessential American fairy tale, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has had a singular influence on our culture since it first appeared in 1900. Yet, as Michael Riley shows, Baum's achievement went far beyond this one book, or even the 13 others he wrote about that magic kingdom.

This book reexamines current knowledge on the evolution, ecology, and conservation biology of both New World vultures (Cathartidae) and Old World vultures (Accipitridae) and seeks answers to past and present regional extinctions, colorizations, and conservation questions. Extinct species of both families are examined, as is the disputed evidence fo

Realizing his affliction would worsen and eventually cripple him, O’Neal packed as much physical activity and adreno outings into his early adult life as time and his condition allowed. His adventures took him from 300 feet down into the earth to 12,000 feet above it. He hiked hundreds of miles on rugged trails, spent hours crawling through caves, bounced in rafts over class IV+ rapids, and fell from 10,000 feet skydiving. CMT (Charcot-Marie-Tooth) made him proficient at crawling, sitting, and falling. Trails is an entertaining and uplifting account of the adverse and diverse treks O’Neal experienced in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Into his 30’s CMT disease was beginning to advance the atrophy in his lower legs, making backpacking more difficult. Rather than pulling the plug, CMT motivated O’Neal to stumble miles through the mountains for years. Knowing his hiking days were numbered increased his appreciation for the minimized ability he still possessed. Accompanied on all trips by an assortment of close, trusted friends, the conversations shared and the constant bantering between them makes for many laugh-out-loud moments and lends respect to all who face their own adversities with humor, self-deprecation, and an overall positivity that inspires. It’s not what life gives you; it’s what you do with it. About the Author After spending the first half of his life living in the Central Valley of California, O’Neal moved his family to the Seatle area where he taught History from 1991-2008. In 2002 he built the log home where he and Lisha live with their dog Taffy. Although CMT now prevents him from hiking, O’Neal now gets his mountain fix in his own front yard among giant cedar and Douglas fir trees bald eagles soar over. He spends many of his Settle rainy days writing and is the author of travel stories as well as the popular murder mystery, Of All the Animals.

This book draws together two current issues in Old Testament study: canonical analysis and the minor prophets. G. Michael O'Neal applies the canonical approach of Brevard S. Childs to the book of Habakkuk, resulting not only in an evaluation of Childs's method, but also providing new insights into the canonical shape and theological message of Habakkuk. The findings of textual, historical, literary, formal, and redactional criticisms inform the study. However, O'Neal goes beyond these findings to ascertain the canonical shape of Habakkuk and to illustrate how this shape informs an understanding of the book's theological message.

About the Book Will your life click away as a montage before your eyes when Death comes? Will it be a car wreck or cancer? Will Death appear to you as a skull-faced ghoul or avuncular guide? Rest assured, you will certainly meet him. Since humans became human, Death has harvested. Over the millennia, he has occasionally revealed himself to mortals. Nick, as a pre-teen, meets the specter after surviving a near miss. Throughout Nick’s life, Death appears on no set schedule, their conversations a mix of reveal and closely held answers to Nick’s questions: Is there a God? Is there any kind of life after death? How do you maintain such a nice tan? Nick’s search for answers continues throughout his life, at times an accepted reality, at others causing Nick debilitating pain and anger. As years tick away, Nick realizes the many cultural and spiritual differences in dealing with and accepting Death, leading him to a personal understanding that helps him cope. Nick’s story will bring hope to some, peace to many, and acceptance to most, as we all must ultimately face our own last goal. About the Author Michael O’Neal’s interest in death and dying has been there since childhood. As a teacher, he continued education in classes focused on suicide intervention, philosophy, cultural studies, and death and dying. An enlightening experience happened when he presented a salon class on death and dying at a women’s prison. A Native American woman confided in O’Neal that she’d had the Kubler-Ross experience of seeing the light. A master’s degree in multicultural education, international travel, and years of living overseas gave O’Neal adjusted perceptions of Death. Being run over as a kid, two close friends committing suicide, and assisting his brother with a dignified death, motivated O’Neal to write The Last Goal.

Biogeochemistry may be defined as the science that combines biological and chemical perspectives for the examination of the Earth’s surface, including the relations between the biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Biogeochemistry is a comparatively recently developed science, that incorporates scientific knowledge and findings, research methodologies, and models linking the biological, chemical, and earth sciences. Therefore, while it is a definitive science with a strong theoretical core, it is also dynamically and broadly interlinked with other sciences. This book examines the complex science of biogeochemistry from a novel perspective, examining its comparatively recent development, while also emphasizing its interlinked relationship with the earth sciences (including the complementary science of geochemistry), the geographical sciences (biogeography, oceanography, geomatics, earth systems science), the biological sciences (ecology, wildlife studies, biological aspects of environmental sciences) and the chemical sciences (including environmental chemistry and pollution). The book covers cutting-edge topics on the science of biogeochemistry, examining its development, structure, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary relations, and the future of the current complex knowledge systems, especially in the context of technological, developments, and the computer and data fields.

This book examines the current literature and knowledge on the evolution and ecology of all the birds named as eagles, with particular emphasis on the larger species. It also examines the past and current relations between eagles and people, including habitat change and conservation issues. Eagle ecologies and conservation are currently seriously impacted by human activities such as industrialization, urbanization, pollution, deforestation and hunting. Some eagle species have consequently experienced extreme population changes. There are, however, some positive developments. Eagles have a strong, historic bond with human civilization, due to their status as the world’s most charismatic birds. Conservation policies have also been successful in repopulating some ecosystems with breeding eagles. Therefore, despite the complexity of this relationship, there may yet be hope for this unique species group, frequently rated as the kings of birds, and symbolic of human power, ambition, royalty, nationality, and even concepts of God. It is hoped that this book will contribute to the further understanding of these unique and fantastic birds.

Covers the history of the Crusades along with biographies of notable figures and primary documents of the era.

Cattle are currently the most important domesticated mammals, with populations numbering in the hundreds of millions and occupying large tracts of land, while the conservation of large mammalian carnivores is becoming a dominant discourse in modern geopolitics, also claiming large portions of the Earth's land surface. Computer-based surveying and communication systems, including geomatics, Big Data and Big Tech, are becoming an essential part of human communication and environmental assessments and are critical to large-scale assessments of land conflicts. A current, critical, potent but neglected issue concerns the measurement of the interfaces of large carnivore and cattle ecologies, in a cross continental format. This book offers a novel approach to the interfaces of the sciences of conservation biology, animal ecology, agricultural development and geomatics, which are increasingly interconnected in modern, global development scenarios. For animal ecology and conservation biology, it is about the management systems that have developed from ecological and human parameters. For agricultural development, topics concern ancestral development, physiological characteristics, ecological requirements, and predation opportunities and conflicts of cattle breeds. For geomatics, the topics concern the image-based and survey-based technologies that enable more critical environmental assessments. The book takes a novel approach by examining the ancestry of cattle, including the aurochs and current wild buffalos, gaur, banteng, yaks, bison, the process of domestication into taurine and indicine cattle, the semi-domestication of yaks and water buffalo, the ecologies of ancestral and modern large carnivores, including bears, big cats and canids, and how the requirements of these large charismatic mammals conflict with the requirements of cattle and agricultural development, in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and South America. This integrative approach contributes to the interests of academic researchers, students, practitioners and policy makers, and general readers.

A look at life in this diverse decade.