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49% of America believed the same claims about the Mexicans.
52% Britain believed the same claims about the Europeans.

Stupidity is not, apparently, terribly territorial. And whilst there are good reasons for thinking good education would help, nobody is willing to pay for it. It's like vaccines, unless 95% or more are inoculated against ignorance, there's no herd immunity and everyone becomes infected with stupid. And that requires a total rejection of the theory that people should be responsible for their own education, it has to be collective and most societies can't handle that.

But it's not just that. I suggest reading through Tacitus' book A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, or the Causes of Corrupt Eloquence.

by careful inspection. At least this can be done to a degree. For an example of where this was done well with Economics (at least done well in my opinion) see Henry George's book Progress and Poverty. For the time starved listen to the free audio book on you daily commute. http://hgchicago.org/links/pro... or the unabridged version: https://librivox.org/progress-...

H. Beam Piper wrote about this in 1952, in his book Null ABC. The author detailed how literacy in schools continued to decline, as more and more educational gadgets became available, until society was divided between "literates" and "illiterates." The illiterates controlled the vast majority of business, but literacy was still required to practice law, and serve in the judicial branch of government.

Check out a physical version of the book here, an audio link here, a free eBook version here and a free audio book (that is probably the same as the paid one I linked to you above) here.

I really enjoyed the audio version I listened to. It was extremely entertaining, and a scathing social commentary on the future of public education as H. Beam Piper (correctly) envisioned it.

How long is your commute?

Download Paradise Lost onto your phone and have a listen while you're driving to pass the time. Start with Book 4, Part 2.

I'm not religious, but Milton was highly intelligent and gave a lot of thought to questions like these; I found his work interesting and highly entertaining.

You like Tolkien, right? Milton's work is the great-grandaddy of Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and every bit as good.

For all those who don't know about it, Librivox has a load of public domain audiobooks, ranging from the well read to the confusing.

I rather agree with Hayek's views on central planning. But central planning is not the only road to servitude and even the path of classical liberalism can lead to such an end, as Hilaire Belloc warns in The Servile State (it may be found here free, here in paper, and here for free on audio). I sometimes find it interesting, in spite of my libertarian leanings, to consider third ways, apart from the old collectivist/individualist dichotomy.

This person, "anonymous," clearly needs to read Walden. E-text http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205 Full audio version http://librivox.org/walden-by-henry-david-thoreau/

Jules Verne's work is awsome. I'm reading it now and learning french. And for you who are also learning, there are some good free audio books out there, e.g. http://www.litteratureaudio.com/

Also librivox.org has some good French content. "Ezwa" has a great reading voice and does many of the chapters in this book - http://librivox.org/le-tour-du-monde-en-quatre-vingts-jours-by-jules-verne/

DRM prevents first purchase. My MP3 players (all under $20 US) do not support DRM. I use them for Libravox audio books. I am catching up on the classics for free. http://librivox.org/

Recent titles include;
The invisable man
The little princess
Moby Dick
Tom Sawyer
Journet to the center of the earth

I listen to old radio shows too.

Deathworld and some of his other works are available at LibriVox. https://catalog.librivox.org/search.php?title=&author=harry+harrison&status=all&action=Search

that is awesome. just curious though. there are some publication localities and time periods where public domain is difficult to determine.

http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Copyright_and_Public_Domain#Determining_Copyright_Status_in_the_United_States

This page doesn't list good bibliographical data. a review/comment mentions 'BBC sound lab'. I know these guys are diligent, but am I missing something?

_not_ Scalzi's reboot.

Charming, stand-alone story which is a part of his ``Terro-Human Future''.

In the public domain, so available from Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137

If you're travelling at some point in the near future, the version on Librivox:

http://librivox.org/little-fuzzy-by-h-beam-piper/

is absolutely professional in its production quality and would make a great story to listen to in the car.

William

(and I second the suggestions of Verne, Ender's Game and the Heinlein juveniles)

Agreed, and if its on Gutenberg, there is also a chance someone added it to librivox http://librivox.org/

Reading is always the better practice mentally, but if you are a bit...Attention Deficit and have a bad rep not finishing books you have started on.
Then audio books are a neat way spoon feed yourself with literature.

Not to mention its a great way to speed up time while having to drive or do menial labor.

Hell, walking around in my city in the dead of night while re listing to one of Librivix Sci-fi Short story collections is one of the better things I've done for my soul.

I was wondering if someone would get around to posting Project Gutenberg.

Also check out LibreVox http://librivox.org/. Free site of audio books.

.

To willingly declare someone guilty of an unjust law is an anathema to the substance of Justice. Jury nullification is black letter law, a concept embedded in the very roots of common law and enshrined in the Magna Carta. One of the pre-eminent works on the subject: http://librivox.org/essay-on-the-trial-by-jury-by-lysander-spooner/

It's librivox:
http://librivox.org/

A rating system was debated and rejected.

To give negative feedback about a reader, email info AT librivox DOT org. The admins will read it and decide if there's anything that could be usefully passed on to the reader, without discouraging them.

More info (including how to give positive feedback) here:
http://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=883&sid=6a21d91282df956ca053c6c15335dac5

Better than text-to-speech: http://librivox.org/

It's a project where volunteers make audio books of public domain works. So you get a real reading rather than a robotic best effort.

I hope free software projects combine this with the public domain texts to make cool materials for people (kids and adults) learning languages.

or listening to the classics.

I count myself amongst the freeloaders, shamefully

Why should you or anyone be ashamed of making free use of a public domain resource? That freedom is your right, and Project Gutenberg facilitates the process. Good for both of you!

I agree the donating poster should be lauded, as should the Project itself, but you needn't throw on the sackcloth and ashes in response. :)

By the way, if others are cash poor yet want to help out, another way of donating to the Project is with your time. Why not help them digitize old books or record audio books? I've done the former (it's actually rather fun, but I'm an editing geek), and the latter seems like an intriguing idea.

Realistically, I think they are worried about audio book sales. I know lots of commuters that churn through a lot of audio books. The read-aloud feature of the Kindle might make a dent in those sales.

I don't think they are on very good legal ground - we shall see.

Heh, I've never bought an audio book. There's far too much available in the Public domain or under a creative commons licence.

Or more appropriately, Dracula. Out of copyright and freely available as an e-book.

Just play the Free audio book.

You know what would be funny? Giving all you liberalists a state of your own to put all that theory into practice and seeing where it would lead. Judging from the amount of comments on slashdot there's definitely a market for it. Your own sovereign state...wouldn't that be nice? Of course all the existing infrastructure would have to be stripped out first, since it was probably put there by some sort of government, but that would only create demand for new stuff, so that's all good.

Well, we've tried, but as soon as things start to look good, we get a healthy dose of OVERWHELMING MILITARY FORCE from abroad, often thanks to the U.S. government, which never saw a threat worse than the thought of a good example. Freedom (tm) is a USA brand, and anyone who looks to be manufacturing a better supply can expect a little napalm in their cornflakes tomorrow.

  As for how a free market could work in health care, I direct you to Roderick Long's Mutual Aid: Medical Care That Worked (Until Government Fixed It) a pdf pamphlet which describes the great health care crisis of the 20's, when health care was too cheap and too widely available, and government stepped in to make it more expensive and exclusive. Up until then, a working class joe could get complete medical care for a year, at the cost of about one day's pay. I sure am glad those days are over, thanks to government, aren't you?

Honestly, true liberalism/free market anarchism has about as much of a chance at success in the 21st century as pure communism did. At some point the sledge hammer of reality always crushes ideology.

Well, then, it's a good thing anarchism isn't based around ideology, then. It begins as a materialist philosophy, not an idealist one. It starts by looking at the real, the concrete, the measurable, and proceeds from there to accomplish the ends that idealists, working backwards from the perfect to the real, have failed again and again to achieve. (Failed for reasons set out by Bakunin in God and the State. An excellent audioboook is over here at ) This is why both sides of the cold war, and nations all across the modern world are so afraid of us, and sought to kill us wherever we appeared ascendant, whether Spain or Mexico or South Korea.
  It'll be interesting to see whether Greece's ruling class gets "help" from outside should the current anarchist uprising prove successful.

  - mantar

And now: the amazing Karma-Whoring AC presents:

Edwin A. Abbot's _Flatland_ in audiobook form, thanks to the nice volunteers at Librivox.org.

Ray,

In another part of this thread it was (humorously, perhaps?) suggested to make an audiobook of these transcripts.

I took this suggestion seriously and elevated it to a platform which it would be more appropriate for here. This site hosts audiobooks that are read of public domain manuscripts and released into the world. If support is gathered through the discussion to the "suggestion" that I posted, it would be a matter of time before we could do a proper production of the Recording Industry versus Jammie Thomas in audio format.

Could you comment on the potential legality of such an effort and reaffirm that the transcripts truly are "Public Domain"? Could you additionally answer the question of whether you'd think it would be a worthwhile effort? Would you imagine it being able to grip a target audience and hold their attention? Perhaps an abridged version would be better to exclude parts that are overly dry and boring? Is this case truly historical enough to be preserved in an audiobook fashion? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated since you are much closer to the Jammie Thomas case than the casual /. reader.

Best regards,

Rob

I've added "The Recording Industry versus Jammie Thomas" as a suggestion of LibriVox.org. See here to discuss or volunteer.

There's a great site: LibriVox.org

They do audio books of public domain works. Many older "classic" fiction stories are there, but if you wade deep enough you'll find historically relevant documents like the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. This *may* fit their definition of appropriate content and their volunteers (you can be one too!) might take up the charge of recording the manuscript in audio format.

I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for but I am enjoying listening to a lot of audio books from Librivox. This is the direct link to their page on HG Wells http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=H.+G.+Wells&action=Search and here is Jules Verne http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=Jules+Verne&action=Search Perhaps a little more speculative the pure science fiction?

I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for but I am enjoying listening to a lot of audio books from Librivox. This is the direct link to their page on HG Wells http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=H.+G.+Wells&action=Search and here is Jules Verne http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=Jules+Verne&action=Search Perhaps a little more speculative the pure science fiction?

Reading the 'Origin of Species' gives great insight into those ideas. It's gives pretty interesting explanations (though a bit outdated) on why some species seem to revert to old forms (such as why whales look like fish), and why some useful features stay the same through the ages seemingly unchanged. Go on, get it and take it one idea at a time. It's available to everyone as a free audiobook or free text

Sadly, there aren't that many good sites with more than, say, 10 free audio books on them. However, that's better than a couple years ago. I don't have my list with me atm, but off the top of my head:

Librivox
Audio Books For Free (which has both free and pay options)
Free Classic Audio Books
And this great post Audiobook Podcast Collection at Open Culture, which lists some sites at the bottom.

If you go through through the list, you'll note that the vast majority are classics in the public domain rather than anything new. I can't say they've been a big hit with patrons.

There's also Audible.com,which is a pay site with DRMed files for both Mac and Windows.

For us, people often find the eAudiobooks in our catalog when they search and simply click on a link to it, so if they're looking for a specific book, that's often how they get to the OverDrive or NetLibrary version. I do agree that libraries should list the DRM-free audiobook sites on their Web pages, and you could always send them a polite e-mail suggesting that they do that as a service for patrons with incompatible systems, iPods, etc. After all, it will certainly make the library look much better too. :) (Sort of "We can't do anything about this right now, but we're out there looking for you guys too!")

I'm not sure what different libraries' policies would be about putting up links to commercial sites like Audible.com or Audio Books for Free that the library hasn't contracted with.

I have a response to this. Instead of haranguing the libraries, bug the hell out of the publishers. As it stands there are currently ZERO library vendors that offer eAudiobook downloads that are compatible with Mac or GNU/Linux because of the DRM on the files. This is certainly NOT the choice of the libraries.

I'm a librarian for a public library in Pittsburgh. We get requests all the time for downloadable audiobooks. We got requests before we had any options, and we get them now that we offer both OverDrive and Netlibrary downloads. At least OverDrive has the option to (in some cases, if the publisher has allowed it) burn the book to CD. After that, you can then import it to iTunes and transfer it over to your iPod. It's stupid clunky and you're better off just getting the CDs in the first place to listen that way, but it can be done and OverDrive's CEO has been known to tell people that.

Now, here's the question from the library's point of view. Is it better to not offer ANY eAudiobooks at all, despite the many requests for them, than to offer ones that can only be used by those with the dominant operating system? (We have to make the same decision with video games, too. What formats do we buy in?) With all due respect to the parent poster and to Mr. Stallman, my job is not to take a stand on DRM. It's to provide materials to the public in the formats they want, and that means that in some cases, like it or not, we're going to decide to offer eAudiobooks that cannot be used by all computer users. Just as DVDs cannot be watched by VCR owners, and CDs cannot be listened to by those with merely a tape deck, and Mac software cannot be run on a Windows machine. We're going to have to judiciously apportion an appropriate part of the budget according to demand for the items.

Now, would libraries love to change this? Yes. I personally have a list of free, non-DRM sites that allow you to download eAudiobooks for free that I hand out along with instructions on how the library-accessible eAudiobooks work. The problem is that those sites (such as Librivox or AudiobooksForFree) don't offer Janet Evanovich or John Patterson or the other bestsellers. They're generally things in the public domain (obviously), and our patrons usually want newer items.

Every chance I get, I complain to our Recorded Books representative (who works with Netlibrary) about the DRM limitations and make the case that should another company come along that offers downloads without DRM, we're gone to them no matter the cost. The libraries that have told OverDrive to buzz off in the past have just gotten shrugs. It doesn't change anything. (This includes the library located right next to Apple Headquarters, by the way. They finally gave in to demand.)

This is something that gets discussed all the time amongst librarians and on library blogs. My feeling is that complaining to the libraries is useless. We agree with you in spirit, but in practice, we're going to offer the product because our patrons want it. What we WILL support you in is complaining to the companies themselves, and in pushing the publishers to reach for a broader market. Instead of writing letters to libraries, spend your time convincing the publishers that they'll have wider listenership (without losing sales) if they hit the non-DRM market and convincing OverDrive and Netlibrary to begin offering other options than the protected WMA files.

From OverDrive's Web site, here's their contact information:

OverDrive, Inc.
Valley Tech Center - Suite N
8555 Sweet Valley Drive
Cleveland, OH 44125 USA
Phone: (216) 573-6886
Fax: (216) 573-6888
Email: info@overdrive.com

And from NetLibrary's Web site:

NetLibrary Division Office
4888 Pearl East Circle, Ste. 103
Boulder, CO 80301
USA
info@NetLibrary.com

Or, since NetLibrary is a division of OCLC:

Headquarters
OCLC Online Computer Library Center

If you don't like the idea of this fellow burning books, why don't you do something about it? Buy some of the books that would otherwise be burned. If they were published before 1923, they are now part of the public domain, and, if you're feeling nice, you could even record yourself reading it and post it to LibriVox.

I'm certain LibriVox would be happy to record some more 'educational' books .. only they only have access to works in the public domain. Everyone else seems to want to be paid for their work. Because of this, most of their books are very old. Educational works that are old enough to be in the public domain will likely teach that the sun orbits the earth :)

If you have a source for public domain works that you'd like to hear as audio books, that's the place to submit them.

Cheers!
Rick Measham
(disclaimer: I'm a volunteer reader for LibriVox)

Arrrr matey, Arrrr

Comes from my readin' of Moby Dick, it do. The sea is in my blood these days, so it is, so it is. But ye got to give it to me, at least I said 'arrr' and not 'aaargh'. The mark of a true seaman, and not a landlubber, that is. Arrr.

Um, could someone explain how the OpenHuman concept "takes it one step further"? The founder's own page seems less open than most myspace pages.

It seems fairly obvious that being "entirely open" is a really, really stupid idea. It has been known at least since the 6th Century BCE that your personal information (history, status, intentions, beliefs, etc.) can and will be used against you by others seeking power and your subjugation. To suceed in a world of conflict and competition at times requires deception: insuring that others cannot pin you down, that if they seek to manipulate you their efforts are based on misinformation. Are you going to include on your resume a link to a page that contains naked pictures of yourself, that cataglogs your personal problems and issues, and that details your secret fantasies? Sometimes it's best to just shut the hell up. If you really need to divulge everything about yourself, for therapeutic reasons or whatever, why not do it anonymously? Unless, of course, attaching this information to your real name is to your advantage somehow.

Clearly the "open" information provided by the site's founder has been prudently selected. To frame its presentation by saying "oh, i'm being 100% open -- this is the real me" is actually quite clever. A page like his might help him make contacts, show off his computer skills, get girls, etc. But it would be of no use to him if he included information about his sexual dysfunction, his absolute hatred for his family and pictures of his hairy ass.

Escape Pod (Sci-Fi/Fantasy) http://www.escapepod.info/

PodioBooks (various) http://www.podiobooks.com/

LibriVox (books in the public domain) http://librivox.org/