Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President

Politicians with presidential ambitions will often solicit asympathetic journalist to write a flattering biography as apreliminary for the campaign. Authorized biographies tell thelife story from the politicians’ perspective, highlightingtheir assets, ignoring their defects, and blaming their opponents.Usually based on interviews, they appear either as first person"as told to" autobiographies or as third-person narratives inwhich the biographer paraphrases and supplements material gleanedfrom the     

A new Late Famennian lungfish from New South Wales,Australia, and its bearing on Australian-Asian terrane relations

A new genus and species of lungfish with toothplates, Adelargo schultzei, is described from the Hunter Siltstone (Devonian, Late Famennian) near Grenfell, New South Wales. Materials assigned to Adelargo schultzei gen. et sp. nov., include a portion of the left side of the skull comprising B, I (postparietal) and J (parietal) bones, pterygoid and prearticular toothplates, a parasphenoid with a long posterior stalk, vertebrae, ribs, anal fin supports and scales. Toothplates are similar to Dipterus, although morphology of the skull, parasphenoid and postcranial elements is more derived. Biogeographic relationships of the Grenfell fauna were based on the presence of the antiarch group Sinolepidoidei, also present on Asian terranes during the Late Devonian. A small number of lungfish scales have been described from Asian sinolepid localities of this age, but differ from those of Adelargo schultzei, and other faunal similarities between these areas appear limited. Paucity of eastern Australian Devonian taxa on the North and South China blocks implies that strong biogeographic relationships between eastern Australia and Euramerican localities during the Late Devonian were not the result of Asian migration routes, but the closer proximity of these areas.     

Desert Victory: The War for Kuwait: Norman Friedman

Book reviewed in this article: The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law and Natural Justice, 2nd ed: Geoff Simons     

Overcoming obstacles on the peri‐urban fringe: young people making new geographies

Understanding contemporary youth lifestyles is a challenge for urban planners and geographers. Young people's everyday needs are complex, and urban spaces in new outer city developments offer unique spaces for shaping their identities. Juxtaposed with affordances of digital technologies, the physical location of home exists in a fluid landscape. Overcoming obstacles, such as access to public transport, places to socialise, and meet their peers, is characteristic of the everyday young person's experience. Knowing how young people decide where to go for personal space, as well as who to ask for personal advice, was the aim of this study. The study was conducted with samples of young people growing up in the rapidly growing peri‐urban northern suburbs of the Australian city of Melbourne. A survey questionnaire was administered to a gender‐balanced sample aged 12–15 years (n = 523) with follow‐up interviews to better inform the results. Logistic regression and factorial analyses of variance reveal their favourite places to be ‘my’ bedroom, being with friends, the park, and the café. Although not the focus of this study, some gender differences were noted. In addition to innovative use of space, the results show the positive influences on their well‐being of trusted family and friends. Young people's geographies offer transdisciplinary insights that highlight their creative usage of these new urban spaces. They offer a new imaginary for geographical education and research.     

A new Late Devonian acanthodian fish from the Hunter Formation near Grenfell,New South Wales

The ischnacanthid acanthodian Grenfellacanthus zerinae gen. et sp. nov. is described on the basis of two large jaw bones from the Late Devonian (late Famennian) Hunter Formation, near Grenfell, N.S.W. The new species is the youngest known ischnacanthid, and the largest ischnacanthid from Gondwana. As for many ischnacanthids, the structure of the jaws and teeth indicate that Grenfellacanthus was probably an ambush predator.