On any given morning more than a dozen gun towers eerily protrude through the dense blanket of fog at the waters edge. Lurking beneath the fog is a hulking monstrosity of concrete and steel designed to house Californias most dangerous criminals. Like the sign upon entering Dantes Inferno: Abandon all hope ye who enter here, San Quentin State Prison is a landscape of horror both harsh and stark. Its mere existence speaks in direct testimony to Californias urban decay. Originally constructed from the hull of a ship in 1852, San Quentin is Californias oldest state prison. It is nestled in the lush greenery of Marin County, just twelve miles north of San Francisco across the expanse of the historic Golden Gate Bridge. With a half-dozen sleepy little towns tucked away at the base of Mt. Tamalpais, Marin seems as unlikely a place as any to build what has become one of the most notorious prisons in the United States. By 1980, San Quentins population had exploded to three thousand while the institution itself had expanded across four hundred acres. During its heyday in the 1970s, San Quentin was a Level 4 maximum-security prison. Widely regarded as gladiator school, it was the most violent prison in the country. Housing over two hundred inmates on its infamous death row, the institution boasted four hundred and sixty assaults while its murder toll soared to a staggering, and unprecedented sixty-one. For most men at San Quentin, November 8, 1980, was just another day. It was not, however, for Mark Cauchi. Nor was it for James Dance. One of them was going to die that day, and both men knew it.

The Development of an Extraordinary Species We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it.

"At a time when each Society had its own medium of propogation of its researches ... in the form of Transactions, Proceedings, Journals, etc., a need was strongly felt for bringing out a journal devoted exclusively to the study and advancement of Indian culture in all its aspects. [This] encouraged Jas Burgess to launch the 'Indian antiquary' in 1872. The scope ... was in his own words 'as wide as possible' incorporating manners and customs, arts, mythology, feasts, festivals and rites, antiquities and the history of India ... Another laudable aim was to present the readers abstracts of the most recent researches of scholars in India and the West ... 'Indian antiquary' also dealt with local legends, folklore, proverbs, etc. In short 'Indian antiquary' was ...entirely devoted to the study of MAN - the Indian - in all spheres ... " -- introduction to facsimile volumes, published 1985.