A propulsive, high-stakes debut thriller where one extraordinary operator holds the key to saving the world from Armageddon. All he needs to do is stay alive. Buried deep in the US defense and special forces architecture is an elite, ultra-black unit, created expressly to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue regimes. Their covert, surgical strikes eliminate grave threats so the rest of America can sleep without fear. Until now. After returning from a successful operation in Pakistan, the entire team is assassinated within forty-eight hours. Only their leader, Michael Garin, survives. As the sole survivor and chief suspect of the attack, Garin finds himself on the run from Iranian intelligence operatives bent on tracking and killing him. Even Garin’s own government appears to have turned against him, sending a lethal sniper from the vaunted Delta Force to eliminate the threat they think he’s become. With enemies coming at him from every direction, Garin’s fight for survival becomes part of a larger conspiracy unfolding on the world’s stage: a catastrophic attack—precipitated by escalating tensions in the Middle East—that will shift the balance of power and plunge the United States of America into oblivion.

A propulsive, high-stakes debut thriller where one extraordinary operator holds the key to saving the world from Armageddon. All he needs to do is stay alive. Buried deep in the US defense and special forces architecture is an elite, ultra-black unit, created expressly to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue regimes. Their covert, surgical strikes eliminate grave threats so the rest of America can sleep without fear. Until now. After returning from a successful operation in Pakistan, the entire team is assassinated within forty-eight hours. Only their leader, Michael Garin, survives. As the sole survivor and chief suspect of the attack, Garin finds himself on the run from Iranian intelligence operatives bent on tracking and killing him. Even Garin’s own government appears to have turned against him, sending a lethal sniper from the vaunted Delta Force to eliminate the threat they think he’s become. With enemies coming at him from every direction, Garin’s fight for survival becomes part of a larger conspiracy unfolding on the world’s stage: a catastrophic attack—precipitated by escalating tensions in the Middle East—that will shift the balance of power and plunge the United States of America into oblivion.

Introducing the next generation of the Zone—A revolutionary new plan that enhances brainpower, improves physical performance, and builds amazing disease-fighting power Dr. Barry Sears revolutionized nutritional thinking with his blockbuster Zone books. Now, for the first time Sears presents his amazing new scientific discoveries that take the Zone to a whole new level. With years of research to back him up, he maintains that consuming carefully calibrated amounts of high-quality, pharmaceutical-grade fish oils in combination with the Zone diet will offer unprecedented health benefits. Research shows that Dr. Sears’ new plan can help to treat such diseases and conditions as cancer, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, infertility, multiple sclerosis, attention deficit disorder, chronic pain, depression, Alzheimer’s, and more. Dr. Sears’ Omega Zone offers a plan to help readers fine-tune their health to reach an entirely new level of the Zone.

Whether you are a seasoned professional looking to explore new areas within the alternative investment arena or a new industry participant seeking to establish a solid understanding of alternative investments, Alternative Investments: An Allocator's Approach, Fourth Edition (CAIA Level II curriculum official text) is the best way to achieve these goals. In recent years, capital formation has shifted dramatically away from public markets as issuers pursue better financial and value alignment with ownership, less onerous and expensive regulatory requirements, market and information dislocation, and liberation from the short-term challenges that undergird the public capital markets. The careful and informed use of alternative investments in a diversified portfolio can reduce risk, lower volatility, and improve returns over the long-term, enhancing investors' ability to meet their investment outcomes. Alternative Investments: An Allocator's Approach (CAIA Level II curriculum official text) is a key resource that can be used to improve the sophistication of asset owners and those who work with them. This text comprises the curriculum, when combined with supplemental materials available at caia.org, for the CAIA Level II exam. "Over the course of my long career one tenet has held true, 'Continuing Education'. Since CalSTRS is a teachers' pension plan, it is no surprise that continuing education is a core attribute of our Investment Office culture. Overseeing one of the largest institutional pools of capital in the world requires a cohesive knowledge and understanding of both public and private market investments and strategies. We must understand how these opportunities might contribute to delivering on investment outcomes for our beneficiaries. Alternative Investments: An Allocator's Approach is the definitive core instruction manual for an institutional investor, and it puts you in the captain's chair of the asset owner." —Christopher J. Ailman, Chief Investment Officer, California State Teachers’ Retirement System "Given their diversified cash flow streams and returns, private markets continue to be a growing fixture of patient, long-term portfolios. As such, the need to have proficiency across these sophisticated strategies, asset classes, and instruments is critical for today's capital allocator. As a proud CAIA charterholder, I have seen the practical benefits in building a strong private markets foundation, allowing me to better assist my clients." —Jayne Bok, CAIA, CFA, Head of Investments, Asia, Willis Tower Watson

Born in 1842, Camille Flammarion was a French astronomer who wrote many popular books about science and astronomy, together with a number of novels which we would now consider to be science fiction. He was a contemporary of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, though his works never achieved their level of popularity. Omega: The Last Days of the World is an English translation of Flammarion’s novel La Fin du Monde, published in 1893. The book’s fictional premise is the discovery of a comet on a collision course with the Earth in the 25th century. However, this is mostly a pretext on which Flammarion can hang his interesting scientific speculations about how the world will end, together with philosophical thoughts about war and religion. Much of the scientific description he uses in the book, while accurately representing the knowledge and thinking of his time, has today been superseded by modern discoveries. For example, we now know the source of the Sun’s energy to be nuclear fusion rather than being due to gravitational contraction and the constant infall of meteorites. When talking about the ills of society, however, Flammarion could well be talking about today’s world. For example, he excoriates the vast waste of society’s resources on war, and demonstrates how much more productive each nation’s economy would be without it. He also depicts the media of his future world as having been entirely taken over by commercial interests, publishing only what will excite the greatest number of readers rather than serving the public interest. Omega ranges over a vast period of time, from prehistory through to millions of years in the future when mankind has been reduced to the last two doomed individuals. Nevertheless, the book ends on a hopeful and inspiring note. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.