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May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Listen up
By
Randy A. Salas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
(MCT) Have you heard a good book lately? Audio books aren't new, but they're everywhere. You can buy them at bookstores, order them through Internet retailers and borrow them from a library or a friend. Or you can download them for free online.
www.podiobooks.com
The cleverly named Podiobooks prompted today's topic when Minneapolis author Jennie Goloboy called to suggest the site, which she heard about on National Public Radio several years ago. Podiobooks are new audio books that are serialized by their authors through podcasts. Users subscribe to a book and receive chapters regularly by RSS feed, or they can download installments directly from the site to play back on an MP3 player, their computer or a burned CD. Science fiction and fantasy dominate the more than 100 titles at the site.
Podiobooks is completely free, although users are encouraged to make a donation for each book, of which the author (who typically creates the podcast) gets 75 percent. Goloboy says she has received little money from the 900 people who have downloaded her audio book, "Discovered Country," a futuristic tale about the adventures of a mild-mannered librarian that she wrote under the pen name Nora Fleischer. But she loves the site: "It's a wonderful way to get your name out there as an author." She recommends that newcomers check out one of the site's top-rated titles, "Nina Kimberly, the Merciless," by Christiana Ellis.
www.librivox.org
LibriVox offers "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." Volunteers record themselves reading classic books that are no longer under U.S. copyright and then post the audio files for anyone to download for free. The site's goal is to record everything available, the audio equivalent of the venerable Project Gutenberg online book repository. So far, more than 800 classic works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama are available. The only drawbacks: 1) Chapters are often parceled out among many readers, which affects continuity. 2) Some volunteers have heavy foreign accents, which is not ideal for listeners who are used to the mellifluous narration of commercial audio books. Still, LibriVox is a wonderfully ambitious project that is definitely worth checking out.
www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Audio_Books_Project
Many of the LibriVox recordings also are housed at Project Gutenberg, which is mostly dedicated to presenting the text of public-domain books. Other human-read audio books are provided to the project by Literal Systems (www.literalsystems.org) and, for the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, by Audio Books for Free (www.audiobooksforfree.com), a pay site that makes low-sound-quality audio books available at no charge. Project Gutenberg also archives many computer-generated audio books, in which the text of books is read aloud by a synthesized voice. Although this is a valuable service for the blind, it's not ideal for casual listeners. In fact, many of the audio books generated in this manner sound laughable, with odd pronunciations, poor cadences and lack of emotion.
econtent.hclib.org
Did you know you can download audio books to your computer or MP3 player through many public library Web sites? Not only is the service free, but recent and current bestsellers are available. At the Hennepin County Library site, for example, the Digital Catalog page lists hundreds of audio books provided by OverDrive. More digital collections are available from NetLibrary and other services by following links on the bottom-left side of the page. The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, N.C., has a similar audio-book download page (www.plcmc.org/catalog/audiobookoptions.asp). Check your public library's Web site or ask a librarian to see if it offers a similar service. All you need is a library card to start listening.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Randy A. Salas is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Do you have a favorite Web site or a question about how to find something on the Internet? Send a note by clicking here.
Previously:
“300” more than Ancient history
Looking for E.T.
Put on a smiley face :-)
Speaking of accents
In the news
AnsaThat finds its answer
On top of the world
Another day, another dollar
Prank you very much
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Sound off
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Quick, give me a word
Driving you crazy
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You don't need to know this
Remembering the creator of Scooby-Doo
Do-it-yourself art
‘Leave me alone!’
Special deliveries
Weight-loss journeys
Daily routines
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New year, new diet
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Wonders never cease
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For your consideration
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Central characters
E-mail @ 35
Idle chatter
Funny money
Classic artwork in motion
For an unusual Thanksgiving
Your slip is showing
Best of the worst
Test your mind power
Remain anonymous
© 2007, Star Tribune Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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