Ian Baker

See the funny side of ageing with this collection of amusing observations, silly suggestions and humorous illustrations So youâ??re a little bit older. So what? Forget the creaking joints and fleeing follicles â?? this book is the perfect dose of inspiration and merriment for anyone with more than a few candles on their birthday cake.

The legend of Shangri-La emerged from the Tibetan Buddhist belief in beyul, or hidden lands. Tibetan prophecies proclaim that the greatest of these mythical sanctuaries lies at the eastern edge of the Himalayas, veiled by a colossal waterfall at the heart of the forbidding Tsangpo gorge. After years of research and investigation, Buddhist scholar and world-class climber Ian Baker and his team made worldwide news by reaching the bottom of the Tsangpo gorge and finding a magnificent 108-foot-high waterfall – the legendary grail of both Western explorers and Tibetan seekers. The Heart of the World recounts one of the most captivating stories of exploration and discovery in recent memory – an extraordinary journey into one of the wildest and most inaccessible places on earth, a meditation on our place in nature, and a pilgrimage to the heart of Tibetan Buddhism.

This book introduces materials and how advances in materials result in advances in technology and our daily lives. Each chapter covers a particular material, how the material was discovered or invented, when it was first used, how this material has impacted the world, what makes the material important, how it is used today, and future applications. The list of materials covered in this book includes stone, wood, natural fibers, metals, clay, lead, iron, steel, silicon, glass, rubber, composites, polyethylene, rare earth magnet, and alloys.

This book introduces materials and how advances in materials result in advances in technology and our daily lives. Each chapter covers a particular material, how the material was discovered or invented, when it was first used, how this material has impacted the world, what makes the material important, how it is used today, and future applications. The list of materials covered in this book includes stone, wood, natural fibers, metals, clay, lead, iron, steel, silicon, glass, rubber, composites, polyethylene, rare earth magnet, and alloys.

This book details the remarkable potential of terra preta, the recently rediscovered sacred soil of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Amazon rainforest, to reverse some of the most the catastrophic damage that has been visited on our environment. The authors lay out a fascinating description of how utilizing the biochar embedded in this highly fertile, living soil offers a way to free ourselves from dependency on petrochemicals, restore the health of our soils, and remove carbon from our overheating atmosphere by fixing it back where it belongs--in the earth. They predict that biochar could significantly contribute to the restoration of the planet to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric carbon by 2050. The book also shows that the rediscovery of terra preta is an opportunity to move beyond the West's tradition of plunder and genocide of the native civilizations of the Americas by offering an invitation to embrace the deeper mystery of the indigenous methods of inquiry and to participate in an animate cosmos that gave rise to such a powerful technology as terra preta in the first place. Sacred Soil, in recognizing the need for biocultural regeneration, takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the phenomenon of bio-char soils, utilizing mythopoeic, historical, anthropological, and scientific perspectives to embrace the deep past, the vexed present, and the prospectus for our future. Coming at this crucial juncture in human history, the potential resting in biochar is also an open doorway into the indigenous ways of knowing that enabled the pre-Columbian Amazonian high civilizations to support a population of millions while leaving their lands more fertile than when they arose.

An irreverant and hilarous re-working of the Kama Sutra for the older family member.

'The publishers are to be congratulated for their exemplary production' - Curtis's Botanical Magazine'...this will go down as one of the greats of plant exploration literature...' - Roy Lancaster 'The appeal of the book lies as much in Ward's prose as in the thrilling story of exploration and discovery. He was a fine writer and it is a cause for celebration that one of his best books is now again available after a gap of 70 years' - Ursula Buchan, The Independent 'There's no doubt that such an elegant and exciting book new book richly deserves a new readership... the story behind its reissue is no less gripping than Kingdon Ward's own narrative'- Ambra Edwards, Gardening Which? Little explored and virtually inaccessible, the Tsangpo Gorge in south-east Tibet is the world's deepest gorge. Through it twists the Yarlong Tsangpo, Tibet's great river, emerging from below on the plains of India. This is the story of its exploration and the rich plant and animal life found there. Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges, first published in 1926, is the fascinating account of plant-hunter and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward's most important expedition. Kenneth Cox, Kenneth Storm, Jr. and Ian Baker spent over ten years retracing the route of the 1924-25 expedition and managed to reach further into this magical and only partly explored land. The book contains the original Kingdon Ward text and extensive additional material, including a history of the exploration, geography and religious significance of the area and more than 250 colour photographs with detailed captions on the plants of the area, most of which are described by Kingdon Ward in the original text. There are first person accounts of expeditions to the area by Kenneth Cox and Kenneth Storm. Jr. and a photographic essay documents, for the first time in a book, the new Hidden Falls located in the portion of the gorge left unexplored by Frank Kingdon Ward and Lord Cawdor in 1924.

Describes the expedition of Buddhist scholar and mountain climber Ian Baker and his National Geographic-sponsored team into the heart of the previously unexplored Tsangpo Gorge, one of the world's most inaccessible and wildest regions, a place that lies at the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist faith. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.