This book presents an oasis of information on the world's starkest deserts. ""Journey from Death Valley"", the lowest point in North America, to the Libyan desert, the hottest on Earth, where temperatures can reach 136[degrees]F, to Antarctica's vast polar deserts, which have not had ice cover for thousands of years. From trade wind and rainshadow deserts to interior and coastal deserts, ""Deserts"" spotlights 10 superlative examples and reveals why these astonishing landforms are never static, but always changing. A dramatic, full-color photographic insert adds visual appeal to this compelling title.

Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and full of astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their career: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizona''s Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the world''s largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 from Korea to Afghanistan to Iraq.But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16. Only a few select individuals will have what it takes. Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the course--the personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran pilots who must teach them how to stay alive.

This book presents an oasis of information on the world's starkest deserts. ""Journey from Death Valley"", the lowest point in North America, to the Libyan desert, the hottest on Earth, where temperatures can reach 136[degrees]F, to Antarctica's vast polar deserts, which have not had ice cover for thousands of years. From trade wind and rainshadow deserts to interior and coastal deserts, ""Deserts"" spotlights 10 superlative examples and reveals why these astonishing landforms are never static, but always changing. A dramatic, full-color photographic insert adds visual appeal to this compelling title.

Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and full of astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their career: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizona''s Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the world''s largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 from Korea to Afghanistan to Iraq.But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16. Only a few select individuals will have what it takes. Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the course--the personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran pilots who must teach them how to stay alive.