The complete hands-on sailing manual packed with detailed step-by-step diagrams, lively action photos, and expert advice on getting the most out of your sailing at whatever level. Whether you are a dinghy or yacht sailor just learning the basics or wanting tips on sailing with the best, this fully revised manual is the book that will give you all the answers you are looking for. It's all in here! -What type of dinghy or yacht? -Cruising and racing -Launching, helming and capsizing -Mastering the trapeze -Sailing with a spinnaker -Managing a crew -Reading the weather -Racing techniques and tactics -Buoyage, tides, charts and navigation -Anchoring and marina berthing -Knots, ropes and flags -Boat etiquette and seamanship -Rules of the road, safety and emergencies -Boat maintenance and repair and much more... This third edition has been revised throughout and brought completely up-to-date, including new techniques and developments in sailing, and new approaches to navigation, communication and first aid. Reviews of the earlier editions: ‘It's a beautifully designed book, with glossy photos, diagrams and clear text, and a great read whether you're just starting out or looking to improve your skills’ — Practical Boat Owner ‘Lavishly illustrated, sharp photography ... a first-class introductory text’ — Yachting Monthly

Marco Siffredi was the first person to snowboard Mount Everest in 2001, and was regarded by many as the world’s best snowboarder. Jeremy Evans explores the 23-year-old's mysterious disappearance as he descended Everest from the Hornbein Couloir, an unrelentingly steep, difficult to access route with a high failure rate. Using exclusive never-before-granted interviews with family and friends, Evans aims to solve Everest's last great mystery, exploring Marco's pursuit of a dream, his love of freedom and adventure, and how his French family was forever altered by his loss.

Elevate your Ruby skills to an advanced level by deepening your understanding of the design principles, best practices, and trade-offs involved in implementation approaches to future-proof your Ruby applications Key Features Learn Ruby web application design principles and strategies for databases, security, and testing from a Ruby committer Understand the design principles behind polished Ruby code and trade-offs between implementation approaches Use metaprogramming and DSLs to reduce the amount of code needed without decreasing maintainability Book DescriptionAnyone striving to become an expert Ruby programmer needs to be able to write maintainable applications. Polished Ruby Programming will help you get better at designing scalable and robust Ruby programs, so that no matter how big the codebase grows, maintaining it will be a breeze. This book takes you on a journey through implementation approaches for many common programming situations, the trade-offs inherent in each approach, and why you may choose to use different approaches in different situations. You'll start by refreshing Ruby fundamentals, such as correctly using core classes, class and method design, variable usage, error handling, and code formatting. Then you'll move on to higher-level programming principles, such as library design, use of metaprogramming and domain-specific languages, and refactoring. Finally, you'll learn principles specific to web application development, such as how to choose a database and web framework, and how to use advanced security features. By the end of this Ruby programming book, you'll be a well rounded web developer with a deep understanding of Ruby. While most code examples and principles discussed in the book apply to all Ruby versions, some examples and principles are specific to Ruby 3.0, the latest release at the time of publication. What you will learn Use Ruby's core classes and design custom classes effectively Explore the principles behind variable usage and method argument choice Implement advanced error handling approaches such as exponential backoff Design extensible libraries and plugin systems in Ruby Use metaprogramming and DSLs to avoid code redundancy Implement different approaches to testing and understand their trade-offs Discover design patterns, refactoring, and optimization with Ruby Explore database design principles and advanced web app security Who this book is forThis book is for Ruby programmers who are comfortable in coding with Ruby but want to advance their skills by mastering the deeper principles and best practices behind writing maintainable, scalable, optimized, and well-structured Ruby code. This book won't teach you the basics of Ruby - you'll need intermediate knowledge and practical experience before you can dive in.

The results of archaeological investigations undertaken in advance of quarrying within a 53ha concession at Little Paxton, to the north of St Neots in Cambridgeshire (England) from 1992 to 1998. The archaeological fieldwork involved a total of 10ha of open-area excavation, as well as watching briefs and salvage recording, preceded by air photograph plotting, geophysical survey, fieldwalking and trial-trenching. The fieldwork was undertaken for the predecessor companies of Aggregate Industries by Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (now Birmingham Archaeology). The investigations recorded flint scatters of Mesolithic-Bronze Age date, pits containing Neolithic-Bronze Age pottery, extensive ditched field boundaries and ditched enclosures of Iron Age and Romano-British date, including livestock enclosures and associated droveways.

As a recent college graduate and fledging newspaper reporter in the Lake Tahoe area, Jeremy Evans became immersed in ski bum culture--a carefree lifestyle whose mantra was simply: "Ski as much as possible." His snowboarding suffered when he left for a job in the Portland area; and when, at twenty-six, he suffered a stroke, he reexamined his priorities, quit his job, moved back to Tahoe, and threw himself into snowboarding. But while he had been away, the culture had changed. This book is Evans's paean to the disappearing culture of the ski bum. A fascinating look at a world far removed from the larger culture, it is also a curious account of a passion for powder and what its disappearance means. Evans looks at several prominent ski towns in the West (including Crested Butte, Jackson Hole, Telluride, Lake Tahoe, Park City, and Mammoth) and the ski bums who either flourished or fled. He chronicles the American West transformed by rising real estate costs, an immigrant workforce, misguided values, and corporate-owned resorts. The story he tells is that of quintessentially American characters--rejecting materialism, taking risks, following their own path--and of the glories and pitfalls their lifestyle presents.

CORRECTION: Regarding the book, The Battle for Paradise by Jeremy Evans, the following correction has been made on page 163 in paragraph three (3) to wit: "Weston once worked in concert with government officials in a pre-planned sting operation, complete with marked bills: Weston, whose role in the operation involved paying a bribe to the Golfito mayor for a concession and then documenting the bribe as a way to expose the mayor as a corrupt government official, was a former cocaine dealer, according to Dan, and someone who illegally acquired possession of his sawmill property." Pavones, a town located on the southern tip of Costa Rica, is a haven for surfers, expatriates, and fishermen seeking a place to start over. Located on the Golfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf), a marine sanctuary and one of the few tropical fjords in the world, Pavones is home to a legendary surf break and a cottage fishing industry. In 2004 a multinational company received approval to install the world's first yellowfin tuna farm near the mouth of the Golfo Dulce. The tuna farm as planned would pollute the area, endanger sea turtles, affect the existing fish population, and threaten the world-class wave. A lawsuit was filed just in time, and the project was successfully stalled. Thus began an unlikely alliance of local surfers, fishermen, and global environmental groups to save a wave and one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. In The Battle for Paradise, Jeremy Evans travels to Pavones to uncover the story of how this ragtag group stood up to a multinational company and how a shadowy figure from the town's violent past became an unlikely hero. In this harrowing but ultimately inspiring story, Evans focuses in turn on a colorful cast of characters with an unyielding love for the ocean and surfing, a company's unscrupulous efforts to expand profits, and a government that nearly sold out the perfect wave.