Word: sahara
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sahara Man: Travelling with the Tuareg (John Murray; 274 pages), British anthropologist Jeremy Keenan returns to that land of lusty mountains, his first visit to Algeria in three decades. In the 1960s, he lived in the camps of the blue-veiled tribesmen, immersed in their language and culture. He studied the people intensely?"as academic subjects," he now says, "not as human beings"?before leaving to tell the world. His academic ambitions and the region's politics prevented his return. It wasn't until 1999 that this man, who still considers himself a Tuareg expert, realized that he couldn...
...Even in the '60s, Tuareg society was struggling. Drought and government decree were relegating traditions?nomadism, historic hierarchies, the methodology for naming children?to the social scrap heap. The pace of change has only quickened. Tamanrasset, once a sleepy Sahara town, is now a real city, full of "big trucks, smaller trucks, jalopies, pickups of every conceivable make and era, cars, mopeds and bicycles; but no camels." Many Tuareg who have shunned city life make camp with government-issue tents instead of animal skins and wooden poles. Tagella, an unleavened flatbread, is still a staple. But these days...
...couple of men collect names of the riders entering the big race. Adam is on their list. At age nine, he is the youngest competitor. The race will be a rite of passage for Adam, into the traditions of the Tuareg people of the central Sahara. The competition is both a demonstration of skill, and an opportunity for the village of Timia to celebrate the wedding of Adam's sister. A cry goes up and all the camels rise at once. One lets out a low growl. Women ululate and clap...
...best part was when I got to ride down to the cafeteria crammed into an elevator with, like, 15 women, all dressed for the Sahara. The worst, though was when I realized that this was all the Republicans? fault...
Digging for archaeological paydirt in what is now the Sahara Desert, scientists have unearthed the fossilized bones of the second-largest dinosaur ever to walk the earth. Dubbed Paralititan stromeri (the first name means "tidal giant"; the second refers to Ernst Stromer, a geologist who found dinosaur fossils in the area in the 1930s and took them to Germany, only to have them destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII) this long-necked, plodding sauropod munched on lush ferns and trees in an area that 90 million years ago was, according to discoverer Joshua B. Smith "dinosaur heaven...