Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 103 - jo

[Sue Anderson]

Please review for approval my reading of the CRS report on Cubas and the U.S. overview.

Duration 15:55.5

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_uscubaoverview_meyerklein_dw_128kb_.mp3

Thank you
don

Hi again, Don, Thanks for your second contribution to vol. 103! These Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports seem a good way to bring oneself up to date on current affairs. What surprised me to learn from this report on U.S.-Cuban affairs was the volume of current migration of Cuban nationals into the United States: "more than 200,000 Cuban migrants annually in FY 2022 and FY2023" per the report.

Your recording is PL OK!

[PeeWeeVO007]

Please review this next submission on the IRS budget. I'll try to pick something more enjoyable for my next read!

duration 15:42

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_crsinternalrevenueserviceappropriationsfy2024_guenther_dw_128kb.mp3

I can shorten that file name if need be.

Thanks
don

[Sue Anderson]

Please review this next submission on the IRS budget. I'll try to pick something more enjoyable for my next read!

duration 15:42

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_crsinternalrevenueserviceappropriationsfy2024_guenther_dw_128kb.mp3

I can shorten that file name if need be.

Thanks
don

Hi Don, I'll have time tomorrow to PL this.

[lightcrystal]

Here is my contribution

Common Sense in Chess [extract]
Author: Emanuel Lasker

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_chess_lasker_lc_128kb.mp3

Extract from pages 9-10 at https://archive.org/details/commonsenseinche00laskrich/page/8/mode/2up

length 3:59

[Sue Anderson]

Please review this next submission on the IRS budget. I'll try to pick something more enjoyable for my next read!

duration 15:42

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_crsinternalrevenueserviceappropriationsfy2024_guenther_dw_128kb.mp3

I can shorten that file name if need be.

Thanks
don

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12440

Hi Don, Thanks for this technical report on budget appropriations for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), focusing on fiscal years 2023 and 2024! What immediately hit me was how scrimped the IRS is on money to improve its information technology (IT) systems! [$0 appropriations in FY 2023]. Also, something I didn't realize before listening to this is that IRS appropriations can be rescinded! The old adage "penny wise and pound foolish" comes to mind. "A recent Congressional Budget Office analysis concluded that a $20 billion reduction in IRA enforcement spending could result in a $44 billion drop in federal revenues from FY2024 to FY2034." CRS report.


You read the included table and the monetary sums quite clearly. The only small problem I noticed is that sometimes you substitute the word "physical" for "fiscal." I think that, unless you want your reading to be "word perfect," you only need to correct the two times you say "physical" at the very beginning of the read: at 0:07.0 and 0:25.5. When these two misreads are corrected, I'll call your reading pl ok. For your reference, I also heard "physical year" at 4:26, 8:58.5, 9:49, and 9:56.5.

If you do decided to read a fourth CRS report in the near future, lets plan on including that selection in volume 104. We usually limit selections to 2 per person per volume, although I have always been flexible...

[Sue Anderson]

Here is my contribution

Common Sense in Chess [extract]
Author: Emanuel Lasker

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_chess_lasker_lc_128kb.mp3

Extract from pages 9-10 at https://archive.org/details/commonsenseinche00laskrich/page/8/mode/2up

length 3:59

Hi lightcrystal, Thanks for this brief introduction to chess! "...its principal characteristic seems to be --what human nature mostly delights in --a fight."

PL OK!

[PeeWeeVO007]

I have repaired all the spots you pointed out. I apologize for such sloppy work. While I shop for other content for the project, I will get my lips fixed!

Duration still 15:42

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_crsinternalrevenueserviceappropriationsfy2024_guenther_dw_128kb.mp3

Thanks again
don

[PeeWeeVO007]

Just read the instructions again. If I read it correctly it looks like I'm over the two selections limit.

Please clarify. I can wait for snf 104

don

[Sue Anderson]

Just read the instructions again. If I read it correctly it looks like I'm over the two selections limit.

Please clarify. I can wait for snf 104

don

Don, Don't worry! Three submissions for vol. 103 is fine by me. Now that you've read the instructions, you can limit yourself to two submissions per volume from now on.

When I took over as book coordinator (BC) of the SNF way back in 2013 (with vol. 28), we had no restrictions on number of contributions per volume. But back then, there were less people recording for LibriVox, and it sometimes took a long time to fill up a volume of only 15 selections. Gradually, over time, as BC, I've changed the instructions to balance people and selections, to regulate how fast the volumes fill up, so I, as dedicated proof listener (DPL), and Jo, as metacoordinator (MC) and cataloger, don't get overwhelmed by work.

Don, rest assured, LibriVox does not run on algorithms! My thought about your IRS selection was this: anybody willing to tackle IRS budgeting as a topic deserves to be heard, especially with tax time upon us!!! So, I decided to include it in this volume. Your 3 submissions all together were a reasonable 45 minutes of recording time, which factored into my decision.

However.... Don, rather than leave you worried about your third selection, I am hereby opening up the remaining sections in volume 103 to anybody else who wants a third selection. Then we're all on even ground.

[Sue Anderson]

I have repaired all the spots you pointed out. I apologize for such sloppy work. While I shop for other content for the project, I will get my lips fixed!

Duration still 15:42

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_crsinternalrevenueserviceappropriationsfy2024_guenther_dw_128kb.mp3

Thanks again
don

Don, Thanks for the quick fix. Your recording is now PL OK!

[lightcrystal]

Here is my contribution

Common Sense in Chess [extract]
Author: Emanuel Lasker

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_chess_lasker_lc_128kb.mp3

Extract from pages 9-10 at https://archive.org/details/commonsenseinche00laskrich/page/8/mode/2up

length 3:59

Hi lightcrystal, Thanks for this brief introduction to chess! "...its principal characteristic seems to be --what human nature mostly delights in --a fight."

PL OK!

Thank you!
I am a chess historian of sorts. That extract [1910] is probably the most famous piece of chess writing on what chess is. Dr Emanuel Lasker was an incredible person. He was world chess champion for about 20 years. He was also a psychologist, a doctor of medicine and he even wrote a play. He was also a world class mathematician! He was one of three German/American brothers; Edward Lasker [1885-1981] was also a world class chess player. Then there was Berthold Lasker of whom Emanuel said was of too nervous a temperament to be any good at chess!

I went to a chess book collector's house and he had a physical original [1910] copy of Emanuel Lasker's lectures that form Common Sense in Chess. I've seen it first hand!

[Sue Anderson]

Hi lightcrystal, Thanks for giving us some background on Emanuel Lasker. I didn't know who he was, but I was intrigued by his analysis of the appeal of chess: "a fight in which the scientific, the artistic, the purely intellectual element hold sway ... making Chess a harmonious whole." Surprisingly, Lasker will be a new name for the LibriVox catalog. Thanks for that!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lasker

[lightcrystal]

Hi lightcrystal, Thanks for giving us some background on Emanuel Lasker. I didn't know who he was, but I was intrigued by his analysis of the appeal of chess: "a fight in which the scientific, the artistic, the purely intellectual element hold sway ... making Chess a harmonious whole." Surprisingly, Lasker will be a new name for the LibriVox catalog. Thanks for that!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Lasker

Emanuel Lasker [supposedly!] said my favourite quote:

"The student, properly taught, will learn more from ten hours of properly taught instruction than from ten years of trial and error".

This is a bit controversial. Many people including myself have tried to find actual evidence that Dr Lasker ever said or wrote that quote. Instead we think that it was in a newspaper column and attributed to Lasker in error. I first came across Lasker being given the quote in the chess book "the chess companion" by chess master Irving Chernev. Lasker created the famous theory that if any chess student was trained properly for 10 hours by a master, that the student, if they were given pawn odds [like a handicap advantage] would be able to draw with any player of any strength.

I don't know any actual test of that handicap theory. I know that Australian chess master Bill Jordan who coached me a few times wanted to find a student and test it out. He was prepared to give the coaching gratis to a serious chess learner. Great quote though for chess or anything else!
Yes I am surprised as well that Dr Emanuel Lasker is a new name in our catalogue! He's one of those polymaths [he was also an expert on other board games like Go] , that deserves to be more known outside of chess! He also wrote about philosophical and social issues such as the wars in his time.

[Grothmann]

Good Afternoon:

U.S. Supreme Court opinion
Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)
Decided May 10, 1893
Read by Dale Grothmann


Audio at: https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_nixvhedden_supremecourt_dg_128kb.mp3
Text at: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/149/304/

This was such an important case, and such a good use of Judicial time that I thought it worth sharing...

Enjoy
Dale

[Sue Anderson]

Good Afternoon:

U.S. Supreme Court opinion
Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)
Decided May 10, 1893
Read by Dale Grothmann


Audio at: https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf103_nixvhedden_supremecourt_dg_128kb.mp3
Text at: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/149/304/

This was such an important case, and such a good use of Judicial time that I thought it worth sharing...

Enjoy
Dale

Hi Dale, This was enjoyable! I had no idea the Supreme Court had ruled on tomatoes. What struck me was that the Court, in calling tomatoes a vegetable, relied on the fact that (in 1893) tomatoes were usually served at dinner "in, with or after the soup, fish or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert." Justice Gray

If there were reason to revisit Nix v. Hedden in 2024, the fruit and vegetable divide wouldn't be so clear. Think tomato juice for breakfast. Or the vast array of salsas you can buy now-a-days. The supermarket when I shop sells mango, pineapple, melon, and papaya salsa, among others. But nobody that I know considers mangos and pineapples to be vegetables.

PL OK!