When Dan set out to drive his Jeep from the Northern tip of Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on the Southern tip of South America, he had no idea how much the adventure would change his life. Over the course of two years, Dan's expedition spanned forty thousand miles through sixteen countries. Now he will never be the same. After years of saving, dreaming and planning, Dan wanted to find out if an ordinary guy can achieve the extraordinary. With no sponsorship, a modest savings account and a willingness to learn Spanish, Dan threw himself in. Going solo, with no GPS and sleeping in a ground tent, Dan wanted to experience everything the Americas have to offer. From poking lava with a stick and hiking among world-famous mountains to corrupt military and camping with Ecuadorian locals - every day provided something new. With his eyes and ears open to the world around him, Dan met many interesting and thought-provoking characters. With their guidance and prodding, and by using their unique perspective, Dan was able to learn many valuable life lessons. Running to the beat of a different drum, Latin America was the perfect classroom for Dan to view our modern work-a-day world through an entirely new lens.

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

"One of the most mesmerizing and exhilarating, yet alarming modern technology books…an extraordinary tale." —Gillian Tett, Financial Times Pinpoint tells the fascinating story of a hidden system that touches nearly every aspect of modern life. Tracking the development of GPS from its origins as a bomb guidance system to its present ubiquity, Greg Milner examines the technology’s double-edged effect on the way we live, work, and travel. Savvy and original, this sweeping scientific history offers startling insight into how humans understand their place in the world.

GPS Declassified examines the development of GPS from its secret, Cold War military roots to its emergence as a worldwide consumer industry. Drawing on previously unexplored documents, the authors examine how military rivalries influenced the creation of GPS and shaped public perceptions about its origin. Since the United States' first program to launch a satellite in the late 1950s, the nation has pursued dual paths into space-one military and secret, the other scientific and public. Among the many commercial spinoffs this approach has produced, GPS arguably boasts the greatest impact on our.

"The American Union is imperfect. But it is certainly motioning towards a more perfect union." It is this foundational thesis in the fulfillment of the American vision that this book focuses on. By affording an integrated and holistic approach, the book shows that the American dynamics is transformational living phenomenon framed on four major paradigms: that America is a land of freedom; that America is a land of opportunity; that America is impregnated with inertia within it that propels it to "repair its faults"; and that the nation has been moving to a higher ground in its motion with a concerted effort of its people as one (E pluribus Unum) to build a more perfect Union. A pragmatic but positive outlook on the American reality in the bountiful land by a first generation immigrant from Gojjam, Ethiopia, the author tries to help the reader develop a generic framework in understanding the evolving American reality since the founders took the bold step in 1776 to write an audacious proposal that "all men are created equal," endowed by the creator with "inalienable rights." The analysis in the book begins by framing the constitutional bases of the nation as a four dimensional compass. Using what he terms as the American GPS, he leads the reader to have a snapshot on the structure of American government, citizenship, church and state, legal, economic, political and foreign policy issues to show that in fact what is manifesting in the American socio-political topology is not a random act but an in-built, systemic transfiguration in creating the opportunity for all children of Adam to realize their God given inalienable rights, being Geezans (freely roaming citizens of the universe) in fulfilling the vision of the nation. After reading this book, the reader will never waste time in random thoughts about the American ever unfolding reality. By all accounts America is an emergent and noble idea whose better days are yet to come. That is the projection whose totality can be meaningfully captured through a living compass: The American GPS!

In the age of MapQuest and GPS, we take cartographic literacy for granted. We should not; the ability to find meaning in maps is the fruit of a long process of exposure and instruction. A "carto-coded" America--a nation in which maps are pervasive and meaningful--had to be created. The Social Life of Maps tracks American cartography's spectacular rise to its unprecedented cultural influence. Between 1750 and 1860, maps did more than communicate geographic information and political pretensions. They became affordable and intelligible to ordinary American men and women looking for their place in the world. School maps quickly entered classrooms, where they shaped reading and other cognitive exercises; giant maps drew attention in public spaces; miniature maps helped Americans chart personal experiences. In short, maps were uniquely social objects whose visual and material expressions affected commercial practices and graphic arts, theatrical performances and the communication of emotions. This lavishly illustrated study follows popular maps from their points of creation to shops and galleries, schoolrooms and coat pockets, parlors and bookbindings. Between the decades leading up to the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, early Americans bonded with maps; Martin Bruckner's comprehensive history of quotidian cartographic encounters is the first to show us how.