Systems Science

Every year, millions of Americans are overcharged and underserved while the health-care industry makes record profits. We know something is wrong, but the layers of bureaucracy designed to discourage complaints make pushing back seem impossible. Never Pay the First Bill is the guerilla guide to health care the American people and employers need. Drawing on 15 years of investigating the health-care industry, reporter Marshall Allen shows how companies and individuals have managed to force medical providers to play fair and shows how you can, too.

Fight for survival. Build the future. Claim your destiny. In a world where humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, lone wanderer Kai Drayce discovers the Dominion—a long-dormant AI with the power to rebuild civilization or finish what the apocalypse started. Forced into a brutal game of survival, Kai must gather allies, master deadly technology, and unlock the secrets of a shattered world. But every step forward pits him against merciless raiders, mechanical horrors, and the Dominion’s unyielding grip. His only hope lies in the bonds he forges with a group of fierce, brilliant, and...

The Devil's Heart is a legendary object of unsurpassed power and mystery. Worlds that believe in magic consider it Darkness's mightiest talisman; and worlds of science consider it a lost artifact of some ancient and forgotten race. Some say the Heart enables its possessor to control people's minds and to amass wealth enough for a dozen lifetimes, while others think it capable of raising the dead, perhaps even changing the flow of time itself. But to all, the location of this fabled object has remained a mystery, until now.

The Connected System has come to Earth and adapted humanity to be able to survive and try to Advance and Thrive in the Connection. With new Classes and Abilities; Lochlan Brady, his family and the rest of humanity will face challenges and threats from myths and beyond. Loch and his daughters have survived their first Dungeon in the newly changed world and come out far stronger. Just wanting to get home, and start searching for the missing Kelly, they come across other survivors in Northwood.

Among the estimated 100 billion solar systems in the known universe, evolving life is surely abundant. That evolution is a process of "becoming" in each case. Since Newton, we have turned to physics to assess reality. But physics alone cannot tell us where we came from, how we arrived, and why our world has evolved past the point of unicellular organisms to an extremely complex biosphere.

I was in my garage, when the space elves addressed the whole world. They didn't call themselves space elves, of course, but most humans struggled to pronounce Khjurhnalva. They had a message for us: Forces that had eradicated their species' males were heading for Earth. The space elves offered us access to the System, as cooperation was vital to the survival of both our species. I, Mathew, know all of the above is bullshit. I saw the truth with my own eyes, heard it from their beautiful, deceitful mouths. No one believes me, though. A planet-wide, survival reality show? Ridiculous.

The Nazis did not really lose World War II. They made it appear that way in order to divert attention from the alliance between the Fourth Reich and the race of aliens known as the Reptilians - an ancient galactic civilization obsessed with conquest and domination. After the German surrender in 1945, the Nazi-Reptilian alliance infiltrated the US military-industrial complex.

For John, death was merely the beginning. Transmigrating into a new world granted him an opportunity to change his view on life. With power and immortality as new goals, he is willing to pay any price. Unfortunately, there are those willing to take advantage of him and his unfamiliarity with a new world. Shadows behind the curtains, unwilling to reveal themselves, will trick him into doing their bidding.

Marc and his party have finished their zeppelin and taken it out to try to discover other Safe Zones. Their intent is to set up trade routes between all the different Safe Zones in order to give them a better chance to survive. The second Safe Zone they discover with the zeppelin is nearly as large as Any Port. It even has its own ring of outlier Safe Zones, or a partial ring at least. It appears that several of the smaller Safe Zones have been taken and converted into dungeons. With the safety of the larger Safe Zone at stake, they bring the zeppelin down to help the larger Safe Zone.

Late 21st-century Earth is overcrowded, her natural resources dwindling rapidly. World governments and greedy mega corporations are forced to work together toward a solution. A crew of ten humans are sent to Mars aboard Hyperion I to locate a suitable site and establish the first colony. After a months-long flight to the red planet, just as they are about to descend to the surface, problems arise. A careless accident kills a crew member, damages the ship, forcing the others to launch early. And that's just the beginning of their troubles.

Until recently, microglia were thought to be merely the brain’s housekeepers, helpfully removing damaged cells. But a recent groundbreaking discovery revealed them to be capable of terrifying Jekyll and Hyde behavior. When triggered - and anything that stirs up the immune system in the body can activate microglia - they can morph into destroyers, impacting a wide range of issues from memory problems and anxiety to depression and Alzheimer’s. Under the right circumstances, however, microglia can be coaxed back into being angelic healers.

In the far reaches of the galaxy, a machine of war bursts into existence in a place and time it was never meant to be. On a mission of retribution for the destruction of his planet, its half-mad captain seeks the death of every intelligent being, and the annihilation of every civilized world. Kirk and Spock, two completely different and unyielding personalities must find a way to lead the only crew, aboard the only ship, that can stop him.

Knowing where to start when learning a new skill can be a challenge, especially when the topic seems so vast. There can be so much information available that you can't even decide where to start. Or worse, you start down the path of learning and quickly discover too many concepts, commands, and nuances that aren't explained. What you learn in Linux for Beginners applies to any Linux environment including Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, RedHat, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Slackware, and more.

Reborn in a crypt, Nick was given an ancient heritage and an important task: to become king, and make the Archaens rise again. Nick was now the last one, and he would need to find allies by forming Soul Pacts with both followers and wives. With the power of the Soul Knight class, he would have to use both paladin and necromancer magics to conquer the tower and defeat his enemies. But not all was right, in or outside the tower. A bandit warlord had taken control of the city of Havendale, and a deathly Trial within the tower lurks, barring Nick from collecting his Heritage.

This book looks at 13 different legal systems, ranging from Imperial China to modern Amish: how they worked, what problems they faced, how they dealt with them. Some chapters deal with a single legal system, others with topics relevant to several, such as problems with law based on divine revelation or how systems work in which law enforcement is private and decentralized.

It's been 10 years since Handry was wrenched away from his family and friends, forced to wander a world he no longer understood. But with the help of the Ancients, he has cobbled together a life, of sorts, for himself and his fellow outcasts. Wandering from village to village, welcoming the folk that the townships abandon, fighting the monsters the villagers cannot - or dare not - his ever-growing band of misfits has become the stuff of legend, a story told by parents to keep unruly children in line.

Jebediah Trapper is a ticking time bomb. After sort of saving the day months ago, he's got a nuclear bomb attached to him in the Fate Dimension, where magic and potential collide. Jeb just wants to defuse himself before he collapses into a sickly pile of green goo or ignites in a city-destroying blast. There's just one problem: The world doesn't slow down because you've got a nuclear hangnail. Mab, Queen of the Fae wants him for unknown, yet most likely sinister reasons. A mysterious, abhorrent entity is making him an offer he can't refuse, and the undead are getting organized.

Marc and his party are seeking the sarcophagus that they were sent on a quest to find, only to discover that it is now protected by far more than just the Guardian they'd been told would await them. When they return to Any Port, Marc discovers that Bastet's obsession with Beggar has reached new heights, forcing Beggar and Marc into taking action to foil Bastet's plan to kidnap the raccoon.

Interference is the true history of the most important and consequential decisions, obstacles, and quandaries Mueller and his team faced when investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. For the first time, Mueller’s only deputy, his most senior counselor who served on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and the lead prosecutor looking into obstruction of justice and Russian interference, have come together to tell a highly relevant and compelling account of what it was like to carry out their investigation of election interference.

Immortality comes at a steep price. Faced with a heartrending loss, Lox walks down a dark path. He knew there would be a cost for immortality, but he didn’t know he would have to face it so soon.