A brand-new novella-length entry in Ian Douglas's*Warstrider universe!* Warstrider: The Ten Billion Gods In Heaven Decades after their declaration of independence, the colony planets that formed the Confederation remain outnumbered by Earth's Japan-dominated Empire. But a new discovery could shake the balance of power. A solar system-spanning fragment of the galaxy-wide artificial intelligence called the Web has been located within reach of human civilization, but no one knows whether it's peaceful, hostile, or entirely indifferent to events on a human scale. Confederation and Imperial forces race to make contact and attempt an alliance with the alien machine that could swing humanity's conflict one way or the other. But if this proves impossible, each force will settle for making sure the other side does not survive the confrontation, by any means necessary.**

Sometime in late October 2011, the 7 millionth citizen of planet Earth will be born. To mark the event, National Geographic magazine commissioned seven articles that explore the fascinating issues--including demographics, food security, climate change, fertility trends, managing biodiversity--surrounding this topic, which are collected for the first time in this special ebook. Envi­ronment editor Robert Kunzig starts by sketching out a natural history of population. The issues associated with population growth seem endless: poverty, food and water supply, world health, climate change, deforestation, fertility rates, and more. In additional chapters Elizabeth Kolbert explores a new era--the "Anthropocene," or the age of man--defined by our massive impact on the planet, which will endure long after our cities have crumbled; and takes us to the Mediterranean, where she delves into issues associated with increasing ocean acidification. In Bangladesh, Don Belt...