COMPLETE: Popular Delusions & Madness of Crowds - Macka

Post by **knotyouraveragejo** » March 28th, 2008, 10:09 pm

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 by Charles Mackay.

This project is now complete. All audio files can be found on our catalog page here:
http://librivox.org/memoirs-of-extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds-volume-i-by-charles-mackay/

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is a popular history of popular folly by Charles Mackay, first published in 1841. The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, beards (influence of politics and religion on), witch-hunts, crusades and duels. Present day writers on economics, such as Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles. Among the alleged bubbles or financial manias described by Mackay is the Dutch tulip mania of the early seventeenth century. According to Mackay, during this bubble, speculators from all walks of life bought and sold tulip bulbs and even futures contracts on them. Allegedly, some tulip bulb varieties briefly became the most expensive objects in the world, until the bulbs bubble burst in 1637. Other bubbles described by Mackay are the South Sea Company bubble of 1711–1720, and the Mississippi Company bubble of 1719–1720. (summary from wikipedia)

Volume I.
o Preface.
o The Mississippi Scheme. 16865
o The South-Sea Bubble. 15069
o The Tulipomania. 3311
o The Alchymists. 59976
o Modern Prophecies. 8397
o Fortune-Telling. 8180
o The Magnetisers. 15267
o Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard.2988

Volume II. (will be posted once Volume I is fully subscribed)
o The Crusades.
o The Witch Mania.
o The Slow Poisoners.
o Haunted Houses.
o Popular Follies of Great Cities.
o Popular Admiration of Great Thieves.
o Duels and Ordeals.
o Relics.

How to claim a part, and 'how it all works' here
To find a section to record, simply look at point 5. below at the sections. All the ones without names beside them are “up for grabs.” Click "Post reply" at the top left of the screen and tell us which section you’d like to read (include the section number from the left-most column in the reader list, please). Read points 6. to 8. below for what to do before, during and after your recording.
New to recording?
Please read our Newbie Guide to Recording!
Is there a deadline?
Target completion date of this project: Date – October 1, 2008 but try to send your recordings as soon as you can. If you cannot do your section, for whatever reason, just let me know and it’ll go back to the pool. There’s no shame in this; we’re all volunteers and things happen.
Where do I find the text?
Source text (please only read from this text!): http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24518
Please claim sections (the numbers in the first column below)!
If this is your first recording, please let me know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.

(BC admin link)
BEFORE recording:
Please check the Recording Notes:
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430

Set your recording software to:
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
DURING recording:
Make sure you add this to the beginning and end of your recording:
Start of recording (Intro)
- "Chapter # [Part #] of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 - This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
- If you wish, say:
  "Recording by [your name]"
- Say:
  "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay, Volume 1, Chapter Title"
End of recording
- At the end of the section, say:
  “End of [Chapter #]"
- If you wish, say:
  "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
- At the end of the book, say (in addition):
  "End of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay."
Please leave 5 seconds silence at the end of your recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes!

Also, please remember to check this thread frequently for updates!
AFTER recording:
Need noise-cleaning?
Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear some constant background noise (hiss/buzz), you may want to clean it up a bit. The new (free) version 1.3.4 of Audacity (Mac/Win) has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide.

Save files as
128 kbps MP3
memoirspopulardelusions_##_mackay.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is your section number. (e.g. memoirspopulardelusions_01_mackay.mp3)

ID3 V2 tags
(To find out more about ID3 tags, go to our wiki: http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/WhatIsID3)
Add the following tags to your .mp3 file (how you do this depends on which software you use – if you are unsure about ID3 tags, send me a message). Please mind upper and lower case!

Title: ## - [Section title]
Artist: Charles Mackay
Album: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Please ignore tags for Genre and Track Number - these will be filled in automatically at the cataloguing stage.

Transfer of files (completed recordings)
Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file.
Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
- Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader (when your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread):
  http://upload.librivox.org
  
  (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
  You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: jo - knotyouraveragejo
- If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

Any questions?
Please post below or PM me.

Thanks!
Jo

oneinmany · Post by **oneinmany** » March 29th, 2008, 4:22 am

i'll take 7 tulipomania... and would love to have a hand in 'witch mania' when it is available

genecode · Post by **genecode** » March 29th, 2008, 4:51 am

Hey, there,
I am so glad that this book's now being read. I've read some excerpts back in college, and loved it!
I always wish to read(not read aloud, I mean in a tradtional way of reading, heehee) it wholly when having time, so I'd love to be the PLer if possible.

Would it be kinda silly to claim to be the PLer when the project's merely started?
Anyways, please consider putting me on the to-Pl list

Bear Creek Mama · Post by **Bear Creek Mama** » March 29th, 2008, 6:18 am

May I have section 28? My kids hair (especially the boys) go through various stages of lengths.

This looked interesting.

Post by **knotyouraveragejo** » March 29th, 2008, 7:30 am

oneinmany You are signed up for Tulipmania.

Bear Creek Mama Section 28 is all yours!

genecode I've signed you up as dedicated PLer. It's never too early to sign up. I think we will go with Standard PL here.

Thanks all of you for getting this one started so quickly!

Jo

Maikki · Post by **Maikki** » March 31st, 2008, 2:52 pm

This looks interesting - could I have section 25, please

Maikki

Post by **knotyouraveragejo** » March 31st, 2008, 3:11 pm

Indeed, you may!

Bear Creek Mama · Post by **Bear Creek Mama** » April 4th, 2008, 11:24 am

This was alot of fun! Here's section 28

Duration 20:20
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/jo/memoirspopulardelusions_28_mackay.mp3

Post by **knotyouraveragejo** » April 4th, 2008, 3:10 pm

Thanks you muchly

Glad you enjoyed it!

genecode · Post by **genecode** » April 4th, 2008, 10:08 pm

Downloading, will finish PL on Monday!

genecode · Post by **genecode** » April 4th, 2008, 10:51 pm

Hey, everyone.
Just PLed chapter 8 and enjoyed the listening!

At the beginning, the reader said: "chapter 8" instead of "section 28".
Dunno whether it matters. Other than that, everything's wonderful!!!

Post by **knotyouraveragejo** » April 5th, 2008, 8:07 am

Thanks Vivian.

Chapter 8 is correct. When I broke this down into manageable size sections, as google docs I originally thought we would go by section numbers and then later decided to go with Chapter 1, Part 1 ...Chapter 1, Part 2,...etc in the intros/outros instead. I forgot to go back and change the intro text in my first post. It's consistent now. Thanks for noticing this so it doesn't confuse anybody going forward.

BTW, as DPL you have access to the magic window, so if you would like, you can go ahead and edit the Notes field of the magic window to mark the chapters PL OK or add any PL notes as you go along.

Thanks!
Jo

Bear Creek Mama · Post by **Bear Creek Mama** » April 5th, 2008, 2:13 pm

genecode wrote:Hey, everyone.
Just PLed chapter 8 and enjoyed the listening!

At the beginning, the reader said: "chapter 8" instead of "section 28".
Dunno whether it matters. Other than that, everything's wonderful!!!

Thank you so much for listening, Vivian, and for your kind words!!!

Laura

genecode · Post by **genecode** » April 6th, 2008, 6:18 pm

Hey there, Jo,
I will take the liberty to add the PL comment into the Magic Window then.
Just one thing, I see you entered the 'PL needed' to the preface but I can't find the link to the audio there. However, when I check the status it is said 'complete'.

Didn't you forget to link the audio there?

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » April 6th, 2008, 6:21 pm

genecode wrote:Hey there, Jo,
I will take the liberty to add the PL comment into the Magic Window then.
Just one thing, I see you entered the 'PL needed' to the preface but I can't find the link to the audio there. However, when I check the status it is said 'complete'.

Didn't you forget to link the audio there?

Here it is:

http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/jo/memoirspopulardelusions_00_mackay.mp3