COMPLETE: Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 102 - jo

[Piotrek81]

Remember the books by Gardner you recommended to me? Here's chapter 2 of her "Kościuszko" (The Fight for American Freedom)

Author: Monica Mary Gardner
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27882
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_kosciuszkointhestates_gardner_pn81_128kb.mp3
Duration: 26:29

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosciuszko%27s_Garden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosciuszko%27s_Monument_(West_Point) (although the inscription differs from what the author wrote)

[Sue Anderson]

Remember the books by Gardner you recommended to me? Here's chapter 2 of her "Kościuszko" (The Fight for American Freedom)

Author: Monica Mary Gardner
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27882
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_kosciuszkointhestates_gardner_pn81_128kb.mp3
Duration: 26:29

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosciuszko%27s_Garden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosciuszko%27s_Monument_(West_Point) (although the inscription differs from what the author wrote)

Hi Piotrek81, Thanks for reading this detailed account of Kościuszko's service in the fight for American independence! I learned a great deal by listening! Your reading is PL OK!

As an aside, I noticed you had changed your LibriVox location to "Goat City, Poland, and I wondered what that was about! Then I read about the Poznań Goats! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84_Goats

[JefferySmith]

The Bark Kathleen Sunk By A Whale
Thomas H. Jenkins
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_barkkathleen_jenkins_JS_128kb.mp3
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/31263
Recording time: 27’ 05”

[Sue Anderson]

The Bark Kathleen Sunk By A Whale
Thomas H. Jenkins
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_barkkathleen_jenkins_JS_128kb.mp3
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/31263
Recording time: 27’ 05”

Hi Jeffery, Thank you for this reading. It is PL OK! I'm sure it will have many listeners, particularly with the news reports of orca whales attacking boats that have appeared in the news lately.

I don't know what you felt while reading this . . . but, for me, thinking of the whales as well as the humans involved, it was an emotional piece ... whaling was a brutal enterprise.

Since Jenkins will be a new author for the catalog, I have been looking around on the internet for his birth/death dates, which, so far, I haven't found. But what I did discover, on archive.org, are three hand-written logs from other whaling voyages captained by Jenkins. The summaries provided by archive.org for these logs tell their own stories...

https://archive.org/details/berthabarkofnewb00bert_0/page/16/mode/2up (1891-1894)

https://archive.org/details/logbookofgayhead00gayh_0/page/n3/mode/2up (1882-1887)

https://archive.org/details/berthabarkofnewb00bert/page/2/mode/2up (1887-1891)

This last mentioned log is titled Bertha (Bark) of New Bedford, Mass., mastered by Thomas H. Jenkins, keeper Joseph W. Morse, on voyage 5 October 1887 - 25 May 1891. The summary provided by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which uploaded the log to archive.org, reads:

"Logbook of a whaling voyage to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Includes descriptions of whales seen or taken, accidents, deaths at sea, illnesses, discovering a stowaway, desertions, punishment, shipboard medicine, desertions, a fight, and women at sea. Also contains profile views, whale drawings, and gauge of oil sent home. On 26 January 1889, broke his collarbone as a result of a boxing fight. The captain's wife and young son accompanied him on the ship, but his son died on April 24, 1889. A service was held and his body was put in a cask of oil. Whaling grounds include the Western, Coast of Chile, Callao, On Shore, and Galapagos grounds."

[JefferySmith]

Sue,

Thank you for the additional information, and thank you for being so involved in your work that absorb the contents of the readings and make insightful comments. It is a real pleasure working with you, and I hope to improve my reading skills with each project. Thanks again, Sue.

Jeffery

[Grothmann]

Good Evening, and Happy New Year:

Text of the Balfour Declaration
November 2, 1917
By Arthur James Balfour
Read by Dale Grothmann
Time 1:49

Audio at: https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_balfourdeclarationk_balfour_dg_128kb.mp3

Text at: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration

Thanks
Dale

[Piotrek81]

Here comes one of the shortest entries ever
This time about the man that Kościuszko dined with in his simple abode in America, i.e Casimir Pulaski (or, as he is known in his native Poland, Kazimierz Pułaski)
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_pulaski_encyclopediabritannica_pn81_128kb.mp3 1:49
Source: https://archive.org/details/vol22_201909/page/n656/mode/1up?view=theater

And I second what Jeffrey Smith wrote. It's always gratifying to see how you engage with the texts that people are submitting to the collection

[Sue Anderson]

Good Evening, and Happy New Year:

Text of the Balfour Declaration
November 2, 1917
By Arthur James Balfour
Read by Dale Grothmann
Time 1:49

Audio at: https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_balfourdeclarationk_balfour_dg_128kb.mp3

Text at: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration

Thanks
Dale

Hi Dale, Thank you for reading the Balfour Declaration! Frankly, the reason I mentioned (while PLing vol. 101) its absence from the LibriVox catalog, was that I, personally, had never read the declaration and did not know exactly what it said. I was surprised to find that it was a letter, not a more formal document.

Given the tangled history that follows on Balfour's letter, I felt the need to PL your selection "word perfect." I PL'd
with both the transcription you cited and a photocopy of the letter from the British Museum in hand. https://imagesonline.bl.uk/search/?searchQuery=balfour+declaration.

Both sources differ in one small place from what you spoke, and that is, at 1:05.5, in the sentence: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object..." You said "objective." Could you please do this one fix? Thank you.

The United Nations website has a transcription of the letter and extensive background material: https://www.un.org/unispal/history2/origins-and-evolution-of-the-palestine-problem/part-i-1917-1947/#Origins_and_Evolution_of_the_Palestine_Problem_1917-1947_Part_I

The U.S. Government website also has an interesting article, with a photocopy of Truman's handwritten emendations to the U.S. press release recognizing the State of Israel (1948). I would say Truman believed in proof reading what he signed. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/press-release-announcing-us-recognition-of-israel.

[Sue Anderson]

Here comes one of the shortest entries ever
This time about the man that Kościuszko dined with in his simple abode in America, i.e Casimir Pulaski (or, as he is known in his native Poland, Kazimierz Pułaski)
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_pulaski_encyclopediabritannica_pn81_128kb.mp3 1:49
Source: https://archive.org/details/vol22_201909/page/n656/mode/1up?view=theater

And I second what Jeffrey Smith wrote. It's always gratifying to see how you engage with the texts that people are submitting to the collection

Hi Piotrek81, Thanks for this brief bio of another Polish hero of the American War for Independence! There are many streets, parks, and even towns named for Pulaski here in the USA. This statue honoring Pulaski, which is in Washington D.C., is particularly impressive: https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/490

PL OK!

[Grothmann]

Good Evening:

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_balfourdeclarationk_balfour_dg_128kb.mp3

The correction has been made. I believe you are correct that, in a document of this nature, we ought to be as accurate to the original as possible. Thank you for catching that.

Dale

[Sue Anderson]

Good Evening:

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_balfourdeclarationk_balfour_dg_128kb.mp3

The correction has been made. I believe you are correct that, in a document of this nature, we ought to be as accurate to the original as possible. Thank you for catching that.

Dale

Dale, Thank you for the quick fix! PL OK now!

[JefferySmith]

Sue, here is my latest submission.

If Your Baby Must Travel In Wartime
By the United States Department of Labor Children's Bureau
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_ifyourbaby_deptoflabort_js_128kb.mp3
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30820
Recording time: 29’ 32”

Hope that covers everything.

Jeffery

[Sue Anderson]

Sue, here is my latest submission.

If Your Baby Must Travel In Wartime
By the United States Department of Labor Children's Bureau
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf102_ifyourbaby_deptoflabort_js_128kb.mp3
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30820
Recording time: 29’ 32”

Hope that covers everything.

Jeffery

Hi Jeffery, Thank you for this manual on traveling with babies and small children. The problems described are perennial; the solutions provided still contain nuggets of good sense.

Overall, your reading is pl ok. However, I do have some concerns. Checker https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Checker (the LibriVox app that checks for common problems with LibriVox recordings), says your volume (at 82dB) falls outside the target range of 86-92dB. This should be easy to remedy.

My most pressing concern is the voice quality on this recording. Your voice in this recording has a distinct "mechanical quality" very different from what you sound like in your recording of The Bark Kathleen. If this computerized voice was intentional, I will accept it, but, if the change came about by accident, perhaps by trying out the some of the multitude of tools on Audacity, you might want to listen to the recording yourself and see what you think.

The only specific change I am requesting is to bring up the volume to within LibriVox target levels.

[JefferySmith]

Thanks for the feedback, Sue. I have always used 23 RMS overall for volume, but will figure out how to do it in 86-92dB.

Let me work on EQing my voice. I was (1) using a different (more expensive) microphone, and (2) I have a cold. I usually have them in my nose, but this one has made my voice froggy. I'll try to remove the affect as much as possible with some EQing.

[JefferySmith]

Sue, I am at a loss as to how to measure db. All of my editors and plugins seem to use LUFS or RMS. I found a reference that said 1 LUF = 1 db, but I cannot imagine adjusting it to 89 LUFS. Can you point me to a plugin or an audio editor that will allow me to adjust the volume to db?

I am trying to remove most of the low end of the recording in hopes of brightening the mix some. If you feel it is still mechanical, let me recover from this upper respiratory infection and re-record it in a few weeks.

Jeffery