Zappos employee Christina Gomez sounded like an opiated zombie when she first talked to Freakonomics Radio. "This job is worth more than a million dollars, definitely," she said. "It's kind of like the Wizard of Oz, and we're in the Emerald City." A week later, Gomez was wondering what she had been smoking — and raising questions about life at the Amazon shoe subsidiary.

Each member of an "obscure board of volunteers" representing the city of Clearwater, Florida, has earned a gold star and pat on the back, as they have ruled that the Church of Scientology must cough up $413,500 in fines which they could have easily written off.

Ooh, look, another propaganda video from Hollywood's favorite cult, the Church of Scientology. This one appears to have been filmed in the early '90s, and features a fascinating shot of Church leader David Miscavige singing a Scientology hymn with his cronies.

The one thing Scientology has always been missing, as far as dangerous cults go, is a good apocalyptic prophecy. It was always more about destroying enemies and controlling time, matter, and energy than heralding the end of days. But it turns out L. Ron Hubbard actually did predict the Earth's destruction.

Apple-y thoughts apparently inhabit the same part of the brain of Apple fanatics as religious thoughts do in religious folks. Scientists using MRI scanners to see what parts of the brain "lit up" as volunteers viewed Apple imagery found that radical fanboyism is close to a religion in the minds of the afflicted.

It's like the opening of the Stasi files after the Berlin Wall fell: Yesterday, Scientology defector Marty Rathbun published the cult's surveillance file on Washington Post reporter Richard Leiby. Today, we're publishing a glimpse into its spying operation against Mark Ebner, one of Scientology's most persistent critics.

Washington Post reporter Richard Leiby has covered the war in Iraq and served as a gossip columnist, but his toughest assignment may have been the 20-plus years he spent writing about Scientology. At least Iraqi insurgents never sent private investigators to dig through his trash.

The Los Angeles Times has more details on the previously reported IRS criminal investigation into the Kabbalah Centre and Spirituality for Kids, a charity co-founded by celebrity Kabbalist Madonna.

What happens if you leave the official Church of Scientology, but remain an independent, practicing Scientologist? As apostate Marty Rathbun learned the other day, a group of bearded men with cameras attached to their heads stalks you. Seriously.

Two days ago, we reported on the Church of Scientology's junk science relief efforts in Japan, through its Volunteer Ministry program. Now we have materials the church uses to recruit members for the ministry, which is "an effective way of getting Scientology applied on a broad, grass-roots level through the society."

Good news from the misguided cult members who delivered Travolta-endorsed junk science to a quake-ravaged Haiti: Scientology "volunteer ministers" are in Japan, touch-healing homeless tsunami victims, according to a celebratory press release issued today.

Good news: your friendly neighborhood Church of Scientology is expanding their golf course! Bad news: that involves evicting all the residents of Sleepy Hollow, a 30-year-old trailer park located near their San Jacinto headquarters. 21 tenants have already left the premises, but two brave souls are holding out.

The Church of Scientology is in talks to purchase public broadcaster KCET's historic Los Angeles television studio, according to the Los Angeles Times. KCET, which recently split from PBS to become an independent public station, is desperate for cash, and Scientology is desperate for facilities with which to produce lies.

Dave Franco (little brother of James) teams up with Emma Roberts (niece of Julia) in a music video for Cults' "Go Outside," thereby answering any lingering questions about whether Dave would follow in his brother's film freak footsteps. In Dave's words:

Sure, Scientology may just be a front for slave-built motorcycles for celebrities, but it's got a positive side! For example, did you know that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was also a songwriter? Don't take our word for it! Watch actor/bon vivant Frank Stallone, clad in leather slacks, sing two of Hubbard's fantastic songs, live in concert. "Hey," you may find yourself asking, "is that onetime teen idol Leif Garrett?" You bet it is! Sample lyric: "You are not minds/Or chemicals/You don't even have a phone/You're in a trap/Of senseless minds/And baby it's time to be reborn." [via minge]

These motorcycles belong to Tom Cruise and David Miscavige, the leader of Scientology. Miscavige's is in the center; Cruise's Honda Rune is on the left and his Triumph Rocket is on the right. Those luscious, deep red tones were custom-painted by Scientology drones earning less than $1 an hour.

Members of an FBI task force on human trafficking have been investigating the Church of Scientology for more than a year according to an article in this week's New Yorker. It's the scientology expose we've been all waiting for.

Laser-eyed managementspeak cult guru Seth Godin has done it again: he's Unleashed the Idea Virus of Purple Cow Meatball Sundaes. No, wait; we mean he's now working without a traditional publisher. Will the unbearable book business ever be the same?

Leave it to the Church of Scientology to make a commercial printing center seem creepy and menacing: This video celebrating the launch of its new 185,000 square foot "dissemination" facility in L.A. will give you paper-cut nightmares.

New Yorker staff writer and Looming Tower author Lawrence Wright is writing what his agent calls "the most profound reckoning to date" with Scientology, told through the eyes of director and apostate Paul Haggis. This should be good.