We all know about the birds and the bees, but what about the ancient placoderm fishes and the dinosaurs?The history of sex is as old as life itself-and as complicated and mysterious. And despite centuries of study there is always more to know. In 2008, paleontologist John A. Long and a team of researchers revealed their discovery of a placoderm fish fossil, known as "the mother fish," which at 380 million years old revealed the oldest vertebrate embryo-the earliest known example of ...

'Will keep you on the edge of your seat from its first page to its last page' -Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and SteelFrom ancient megalodons to fearsome Great Whites, this book tells the complete, untold story of how sharks emerged as Earth's ultimate survivors, by world-leading paleontologist John Long.Sharks have been fighting for their lives for 500 million years and today are under dire threat. T...

With more than 100 full-color photos and detailed captions showing how to create safe and simple rock-climbing anchoring systems, this is a take-to-the-crag companion book to our huge-selling Climbing Anchors.Designed for quick use by climbers on site, this book shows how to properly place and configure natural anchors, passive chocks, mechanical chocks, fixed gear, knots, belay anchors, toprope anchors and rappel anchors. This field guide is up to date with the essential knowledge...

In the summer of 1904, thirty-two men lined up in St. Louis to run twenty-four miles through choking dust and 90-degree heat, past automobiles that nearly killed them and a single water station that failed them entirely. Fourteen finished. One was disqualified for hitching a ride in a car. Another nearly died from the very "medicine" his own trainers gave him to keep him standing. A third, a Cuban postman who'd never trained a day in his life, stopped mid-race to eat green peaches from an ...

Year after year, in spite of monumental dangers, climbers return to the world's most difficult mountains, whether it's the cliffs of Yosemite or the peaks of the Himalaya. At these places, even the most cautious climber must accept the possibilities of moving unroped to save time, braving terrain vulnerable to rockfall, trusting afternoon thunderstorms to hold off long enough to get below treeline. Mistakes, bad weather and bad luck often lead to death. This collection offers harrowing acc...

In this second short play by Eric Coble, Mind Media Productions present H.R. Frank, an office administrator in his 50's sits behind his desk and receives a call from Human Resources announcing an impending visit. One by one his colleagues arrive in and hear about HR's planned arrival. Paranoia begins to set in as to why this is happening and revelations begin to surface….

In 1768 John Long set out from Gravesend in England, bound for Canada and a position as an articled clerk. Quickly developing an affection for the First Nations people he encountered, he determined to learn native languages and thereby make him useful in the 'Indian Trade' living first among Mohawks at Cahnuaga (Kahnawake) and later, among Ojibwa and Cree people north of Lake Superior. Long's journal provides a thrilling depiction the life of a fur trader in the late eighteenth century. It...

Riding tubes in Venezuela. BASE jumping in Europe. Climbing big walls in Yosemite. Riding bulls in Texas.These first-person stories from acclaimed climber and adventurer John Long may be vastly different in content, but they share an identifiable emotional texture, tone and delivery, and fundamentally are of one piece. This is storytelling at its best—nonfiction that reads like fiction. In Stories from the Dirt, the action leaves you breathless, but it’s the characters that really ...

"Madame Butterfly" is a short story by American lawyer and writer John Luther Long. It is based on the recollections of Long's sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband—a Methodist missionary. It was published in Century Magazine in 1898, together with some of Long's other short fiction.An American naval officer, Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, arrives in Japan to take up his duties on a ship docked in Nagasaki. On the suggestion of his friend Sayre, he...

SOVAS 2020 Voice Arts Award winner for Fiction–Best VoiceoverDragula is a tale filled with sensitivity to personal struggle, raucous humor and musical entertainment. Peter, a vulnerable young man, makes the decision to transition, becoming the gender and human being he was meant to be. Unfortunately, Peter’s stage persona of the musical entertainer Dragula draws the judgmental ire of the Right Reverend Bobby Swagger. Reverend Swagger is determined to prove by whatever means necess...

Madame Butterfly is the story of the young Japanese girl Cho-Cho San, who marries a flighty American naval officer, and is thenceforth outcast from her relatives. Anxiously she awaits the return of her beloved husband, but when he finally anchors in the harbour, Cho-Cho San does not get the happy ending she was hoping for. This short story by John Luther Long has inspired Giacomo Puccini to write the opera of the same name.

Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite is a risqué tale that explores both human and bedbug daily lives and night-time sexual activities. In alternating chapters between the humans, Marnie and Bob, and the bedbugs, Ukk and Fahh, the tale illustrates the humor, turmoil, and terror that explodes as the tension rises and each couple discovers the existence of the other and their cohabitation spins horrifyingly out of control!