A Billion Years

One of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir. Mike Rinder’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology center when he was five years old. After high school, he signed a billion-year contract and was admitted into Scientology’s elite inner circle, the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbard’s yacht and promised training in Hubbard’s most advanced techniques, Mike was instead put to work swabbing the decks. Still, Rinder bought into the doctrine that his personal comfort was secondary to the higher purpose of Hubbard’s world-saving mission, swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s, Rinder became Scientology’s international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientology’s pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organization’s prominent celebrity members, including Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta. Yet Rinder couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that something was amiss—Hubbard’s promises remained unfulfilled at his death, and his successor, David Miscavige, was a ruthless and vindictive man who did not hesitate to confine many top Scientologists, Mike among them, to a makeshift prison known as the Hole. In 2007, at the age of fifty-two, Rinder finally escaped Scientology. Overnight, he became one of the organization’s biggest public enemies. He was followed, hacked, spied on, and tracked. But he refused to be intimidated and today helps people break free of Scientology. In A Billion Years, the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology is revealed as never before. Rinder offers insights into the religion that only someone of his former high rank could provide and tells a harrowing but fulfilling story of personal resilience.

Scattered throughout the globe of human-occupied space is evidence of a civilisation that bestrode the galaxy before humanity was born. Now, a strange device has been discovered that shows the details of that great civilisation. The details include a star map and hints that the High Ones are not extinct after all. The map beckons, and humans, being what they are, will follow. To the next great step in human destiny - or ultimate disaster. (First published 1969)

Adam Slade was a man who had nothing to lose by making a break for it. The trouble was, he knew that no one had ever escaped from the—Prison of a Billion Years

“A definitive guide to astronomy’s hottest field.” —The Economist Since its formation nearly five billion years ago, our planet has been the sole living world in a vast and silent universe. But over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of “exoplanets,” including some that could be similar to our own world, and the pace of discovery is accelerating. In a fascinating account of this unfolding revolution, Lee Billings draws on interviews with the world’s top experts in the search for life beyond earth. He reveals how the search for exoplanets is not only a scientific challenge, but also a reflection of our culture’s timeless hopes, dreams, and fears.

“Who can ask for better cosmic tour guides?” —Michio Kaku Our true origins are not only human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins illuminates the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. This revised and updated edition features such startling discoveries as the now more than 5,000 detected exoplanets that promise to reveal exciting possibilities for life in the cosmos, and data from a new generation of ground-based and spaceborne observatories that have fundamentally changed what we know about the expanding universe?and maybe even the laws of physics themselves. From the first image of a galaxy’s birth to tantalizing evidence of water not only on Mars but also on the asteroid Ceres, as well as on moons of Jupiter and Saturn, coauthors Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith conduct an exhilarating tour of the cosmos with clarity and exuberance.

Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, with the very latest discoveries in paleontology integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science. 100 illustrations.

"When I finished reading this book, all I could say was WOW! What a stunning piece of literary work... It is concise, brilliantly written, backed by scientific findings, with clear human logic and intelligence. If this doesn't awaken the masses to delve into who and what they truly are, I can't imagine what will." ~ Jerry Issa, teacher of metaphysics, Trenton, Michigan This book will change your life if you let it. If we are accidental beings on a remote planet in a vast universe, existing for merely a blip in cosmic time, what's the point of living at all? Until we learn life is too significant to be a short-lived brilliance that rises out of nothing and ends in nothing, we will continue to live out our lives in, what Thoreau saw as, quiet desperation. We sense the materialistic wall when we ask the question, "Is that all there is?" Without resorting to miracles or magic, this book provides compelling evidence of life beyond the physical world by logically investigating the limitations of matter in the universe, by examining the gaps in scientific theories and by analyzing what the mystics already know about a spiritual existence. It takes a dedicated seeker with no preconceived ideas and no intent on arriving to see beyond the materialistic wall. This book is intended to expand your awareness of life here and hereafter, hopefully providing the spark that will start you on your own personal pilgrimage. The mystics tell us we will be guided to the next step along our spiritual path when we are ready. Are you ready? AWARENESS: The following might be the thoughts of those at different levels of awareness as they walk through a rose garden. I want - I wonder how much I could get for these roses. I believe - God created roses when He created the world and everything in it. I doubt - Roses evolved from wild flowering shrubs, but most garden varieties are hybrids. I seek - How could anything as beautiful as a rose happen purely by chance? I know - Roses, like all life on Earth, are physical manifestations of spirit.

Bestselling Camilla Isley returns with this gorgeously funny enemies-to-lovers rom com, perfect for fans of Sarah Adams, Lynn Painter and Jo Watson. She's a self-made fitness sensation. He's a billionaire mogul. They're sworn enemies and rivals... aren't they? Blake Avery knows all about hard work. She’s gone from making videos in her teenage bedroom to founding a booming fitness business and opening a state-of-the-art Manhattan gym. Now she’s on the cusp of realizing her wildest dreams, and she’s not going to let anyone stand in her way. Certainly not man-of-the-hour Gabriel Mercer. He might be one of the biggest names in the fitness world and set women’s pulses soaring more than a grueling HIIT workout, but he grew up in a billionaire dynasty and had everything handed to him – or so Blake thinks. But when Blake publicly criticizes Gabriel, she sparks a feud that neither entrepreneur is willing to back down from. And in an industry that seems determined to keep pushing them together, can Blake hold on to her grudge? Or will she finally warm up to Gabriel's charm? Readers love Camilla Isley's books: “He’s a billionaire and so is she! This is no ordinary billionaire romance. It is a romcom full of wit, charm, sexual chemistry and brains.” Laura Carter "Sexy, funny, romantic and heartfelt - this book has it all - a must read." Sandy Barker "A fast-paced, entertaining will-they-won't-they that kept me on tenterhooks to the end." Phoebe MacLeod

From its beginnings on the still-forming planet to the recent emergence of "Homo sapiens, " one of the world's leading paleontologists narrates how and why life on Earth developed as it did. 110 illustrations.

A noted physicist and popular science writer explains why the sea is salty, how bubbles form on the water's surface, where waves come from, and other curiosities. 1987 edition.

Hailed by The New York Times for writing “with wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along,” nationally bestselling author Robert M. Hazen offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet’s living and nonliving spheres. With an astrobiologist’s imagination, a historian’s perspective, and a naturalist’s eye, Hazen calls upon twenty-first-century discoveries that have revolutionized geology and enabled scientists to envision Earth’s many iterations in vivid detail—from the mile-high lava tides of its infancy to the early organisms responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties beneath our feet. Lucid, controversial, and on the cutting edge of its field, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order. "A sweeping rip-roaring yarn of immense scope, from the birth of the elements in the stars to meditations on the future habitability of our world." -Science "A fascinating story." -Bill McKibben

García Márquez and Arthur C. Clarke meet for coffee. “One Billion Faces” brings to life the unexpected entanglement of fantastic realism and hard science fiction. In a collection of seven short and ten flash stories, Mario Barbatti invited us to contemplate the extremes of the human condition. Either delving into the psychology of some of the founding myths of the western culture or speculating about our place in the universe on unthinkable time scales, “One Billion Faces” is a profound imagination journey. The amazements and frights of the near future, the superation of all human limits within thousands of years, the wonders of our descendants millions of years from now, the reemergence of life after all stars are burnt, these are some of the themes carefully crafted into the absorbing stories of this book.

Molecular evolution, phylogenetics, genomics, and other related topics are all critical to understanding evolutionary processes. All too frequently, however, they are treated separately in textbooks and courses, such that students fail to connect all of the concepts, principles, and nuances of the evolutionary processes. Integrated Molecular Evolut

This book is about the history of the rocks and fossils of the Maritime Provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI) over the last billion years. The book is beautifully illustrated in full colour, with original paintings of ancient vistas, over 150 photographs, and crisp explanatory diagrams and sketches.

Vols. 17, 21-105 contain Annual reports of the Marine Biological Laboratory for 1907/08-1952.