You can find the PDF for free online.  I will not specify where.  However since I am trying to play a game that is meant to be played with index cards, there is a few things I am saying that will translate to the needs of text.

For instance how to translate the non-linearity of this game to forum posting.

A player during each turn makes a event that they place in of the periods of time established.  The Lens makes a focus event each turn and each player makes a scene in said event, with the turn ending when the Lens makes a scene of their own.  Events and periods, even scenes can be revisited at any point as this is not a linear game!  When you are the lens, you can go to the start and end of the time line as you please.  I should warn that there is nothing stopping people from wiping out anything you put in the world- however the rule against contradiction means you still can expand on any civilization you introduce before the death point as periods of time can be really of any length.

I should note that I will be the first lens to show an example of how to start things.

What a Lens does is put focus on a event or period of time for a turn.  Players during said focus must work within the focus, making scenes and events within the time the lens has chosen to focus on.  

Scenes are the smallest unit- You start one my posing a question.  Another player must answer the question.  The person who makes the scene specifies the characters in said scene.  When setting up a scene, you can require and ban groups of people or specific people.  For instance, requiring the dictator of a country and the general Valerion but banning the dictator's wife from play in the scene.  Other players can take the role of a character in said scene, stay in the background of things or play "time".  Playing time means you play as a force or group of people pushing the situation involved.  

Should a creative conflict arise in a event someone brings up, you can Push to substitute a event with a proposal that other players must agree on.  Other players may also make their own proposals in the event of a creative conflict.  You can only Push immediately after a scene/period/event is established by another player.  You cannot retcon a event multiple turns after it has been established.  You cannot retract your proposal once it has been stated.  A vote is carried out- if deadlock happens a dice will be rolled.  The number you are correlates to the order you joined the game.  (So I would be 1 while Flagg is 2) 

Also here is a important snippet from the manual to consider going into this game:

[b]Style of Play: Getting in the Microscope

Mindset[/b]

[i]The history will not turn out the way you expected. Abandon your preconceptions. What other players add will surprise you, but what you add will probably surprise them too. That’s good. The history you arrive at will be far more interesting than if you planned it out by committee and consensus.
No player owns anything in the history. Another player can take a beautiful metropolis you lovingly introduced and destroy it with nuclear hellfire, but they can’t change what’s already happened. Even if something is destroyed, it is never removed from play because you can always jump back in time and explore when it was still around. The past is never closed.

When it’s your turn to add to the history, don’t negotiate or discuss what you are making. Don’t take a poll. It’s your decision. You have absolute power. Likewise, do not ask a player to change something just because you don’t like it. Outside Scenes, you have no power to veto or reject what other players create (unless their addition breaks the rules). Inside Scenes, you can Push you own ideas, but you can’t change theirs.

Speak  first, then write. The cards will help you remember your history, but what the other players hear and remember is more important than what you write down.

When someone else is making something and you don’t have a clear picture or you don’t understand how it into the history, ask questions. Ask for clarification. Everyone must have a clear picture of what is being added to the history so that they can build on it later.[/i]

-Ben Robbins

On the subject of book end periods anyone have proposals on the ending period?