At seventeen, following the directions of the philosopher and mystic Douglas Harding, David Lang pointed his finger at his own face and discovered he didn't have one. Instead, he found himself staring at nothing. But it was a very special nothing-a nothing filled with everything. Taking this revelation as his starting point, Lang shows how the vision of nothingness—the Desert—turned his life upside down. In image-rich language, he draws the reader into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of “the given.” You will see buildings and trees that move, a man who expands and shrinks like a balloon, and a room built around a black hole. You will witness scenes of joy, wonder, confusion, and despair. And you will find the Flower, that mysterious and profound destination which adds everything—and nothing—to the vision of the Desert. In the appendix, Lang gives explicit directions so that you can experience the book's key insights yourself.

In the course of the last two decades, both the historical reconstruction of the Iron I–Iron IIA period in Israel and Judah and the literary-historical reconstruction of the Books of Samuel have undergone major changes. With respect to the quest for the “historical David”, terms like “empire” or “Großreich” have been set aside in favor of designations like “mercenary” or “hapiru leader”, corresponding to the image of the son of Jesse presented in I Sam. At the same time, the literary-historical classification of these chapters has itself become a matter of considerable discussion. As Leonhard Rost’s theory of a source containing a “History of David’s Rise” continues to lose support, it becomes necessary to pose the question once again: Are we dealing with a once independent ‘story of David’ embracing both the HDR and the “succession narrative” are there several independent versions of an HDR to be detected, or do I Sam 16–II Sam 5* constitute a redactional bridge between older traditions about Saul on the one hand and David on the other? In either case, what parts of the material in I Sam 16-II Sam 5 are based on ancient traditions, and may therefore serve as a source for any tentative historical reconstruction? The participants in the 2018 symposium at Jena whose essays are collected in this volume engage these questions from different redaction-critical and archaeological perspectives. Together, they provide an overview of contemporary historical research on the book of First Samuel.

Uses the early-tenth-century Celtic poem the Voyage of Brendan, an account of the saint's journeys across the sea in search of the "promised land of the Saints," as a guide to our own spiritual call and adventure.

The acclaimed author and biologist shares “a superb personal account [of Antarctica] . . . a remarkable evocation of a land at the bottom of the world” (Boston Globe). During the 1980s, biologist David Campbell spent three summers in Antarctica, researching its surprisingly plentiful wildlife. In The Crystal Desert, he combines travelogue, nature writing and science history to tell the story of life's tenacity on the coldest of Earth's continents. Between scuba expeditions in Admiralty Bay, Campbell remembers the explorers who discovered Antarctica, the whalers and sealers who despoiled it, and the scientists who laid the groundwork to decipher its mysteries. Chronicling the desperately short summers in beautiful, lucid prose, he presents a fascinating portrait of the evolution of life in Antarctica and of the continent itself. Winner of the John Burroughs Medal for Natural History Writing and a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship

An “authoritative, comprehensive, well written, and entertaining” guide to staying alive in the desert from a Texas Parks and Wildlife veteran (Library Journal). Remote desert locations, including the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico, southern Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, draw adventurers of all kinds, from the highly skilled and well prepared to urban cowboys who couldn’t lead themselves, much less a horse, to water. David Alloway’s goal in this book is to help all of them survive when circumstances beyond their control strand them in the desert environment. In simple, friendly language, enlivened with humor and stories from his own extensive experience, Alloway—a naturalist and search-and-rescue veteran who’s worked with the US Air Force on survival skills—here offers a practical, comprehensive handbook for both short-term and long-term survival in the Chihuahuan and other North American deserts.

Egypt has placed its hopes on developing its vast and empty deserts as the ultimate solution to the country’s problems. New cities, new farms, new industrial zones, new tourism resorts, and new development corridors, all have been promoted for over half a century to create a modern Egypt and to pull tens of millions of people away from the increasingly crowded Nile Valley into the desert hinterland. The results, in spite of colossal expenditures and ever-grander government pronouncements, have been meager at best, and today Egypt’s desert is littered with stalled schemes, abandoned projects, and forlorn dreams. It also remains stubbornly uninhabited. Egypt’s Desert Dreams is the first attempt of its kind to look at Egypt’s desert development in its entirety. It recounts the failures of governmental schemes, analyzes why they have failed, and exposes the main winners of Egypt’s desert projects, as well as the underlying narratives and political necessities behind it, even in the post-revolutionary era. It also shows that all is not lost, and that there are alternative paths that Egypt could take.

What exactly is a desert? How can I attract hummingbirds? Are cactus spines poisonous? Is a javelina a pig? This book provides detailed answers to 42 questions that the staff at the Desert Museum are most often asked. Supplemented with nearly 100 illustrations, this 200 page book is broken down into three sections: getting to know the desert, the desert as one's backyard and enjoying the desert. Seven useful appendixes cover a range of topics including hummingbird gardening, venomous bites and stings, climate and additional sources of information about desert life. A fun way to learn how wild and fascinating our deserts really are!