Marc-Uwe lives together with a kangaroo. The kangaroo is a communist and it is really into Nirvana. It's a classical Berlin flat-sharing community, where the deep questions of life are debated: Is lying in a hammock already a kind of passive resistance? Must the Kangaroo place its pouch onto the conveyor belt at the airport security check? Did the Kangaroo really fight for the Vietcong? And why is it addicted to champagne truffles?

Raff tells how and why he became an evolutionary biologist and describes some of the vibrant and living science of evolution.

An eye-opening and fascinating slow travel journey from an acclaimed writer who circled the globe without ever leaving the ground. In this age of globalism and high-speed travel, Seth Stevenson, the witty, thoughtful Slate columnist, takes us back to a time when travel meant putting one foot in front of the other, racing to make connections between trains and buses in remote transit stations, and wading through the chaos that most long-haul travelers float 35,000 feet above. Stevenson winds his way around the world by biking, walking, hiking, riding in rickshaws, freight ships, cruise ships, ancient ferries, buses, and the Trans-Siberian Railway-but never gets on an airplane. He finds that from the ground, one sees the world anew-with a deeper understanding of time, distance, and the vastness of the earth. In this sensational travelogue, each step of the journey is an adventure, full of unexpected revelations in every new port, at every bend in the railroad tracks, and around every street corner.

We have been lied to for many years. It is a myth. There are no roo's. A couple of friends take on a journey through New Zealand and Australia to search for the mythical kangaroos. There is laughter and tears, freezing rain and sweltering heat, road kill and road trains. You will meet crazy Russians, warlords in hiding and some croc hunters. Read carefully as somewhere between Wellington and Cairns the meaning of life is revealed.

Jackaroo; n. a male station hand. That is according to the "Australian Slang Dictionary' whereas the Macquarie Dictionary gives a more realistic version. " A jack of all trades". Certainly a jackaroo is far more than 'a male station hand', which will be evident as the reader moves through this recount of the writer's five years of 'Station Management Apprenticeship"', possibly a more precise definition of the word. ('Station" being a large sheep and/or cattle property/ranch). The origin of the word 'jackaroo' has been debated as long as the word has been in existence, but the most popular belief is that early English migrants, who worked on stations in the Australian Outback, were given the name of "Jack Raw", being raw to the ways of the Australian bush. One such English migrant, whose name was Jack Carew may have had an influence on the foundation of the word. There is also the more recent female counterpart, known as a jillaroo. It is however, generally agreed that the word has no connection with the famed Australian icon, the kangaroo.