Showing results by narrator "Jim Johnston" in All Categories

A Tale of Two Economies details the ongoing battle between the material and the monetary economies. The good news is that the development of modern technology in our material economy has us on the brink of prosperity. The bad news is that a turf war over the money supply in our monetary economy is destroying our prospects for enjoying this success. Thus, we have rampant inflation and a growing gap between the rich and the poor today.

When the San Francisco ferry called Martinez collides with another ship in the fog and sinks, Humphrey Van Weyden, an intellectual and well-known literary critic, is one of the “lucky” survivors, set adrift in the Bay. He is eventually found by "Wolf" Larsen, the brutal and cynical sea captain of a seal-hunting schooner called the Ghost.

Wovoka (1867-1932), the Ghost Dance Prophet, was a member of the Walker River band of Paiutes in Western Nevada. The Walker River Reservation was established in 1859, and was Wokova’s home off and on for years. Wovoka was also known as Jack Wilson, a name he acquired while he was, for some years, employed on the David Wilson family ranch in the Mason Valley.

A story that takes place during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. White Fang is a wild wolf-dog hybrid who, through a series of dramatic twists and turns, grows to become a savage, callous, morose, solitary, and deadly fighter. But one day his life starts to change when a loving master named Weedon Scott, a rich, young gold hunter, buys him and starts a desperate attempt to tame White Fang.

As a gripping adventure story, The Call of the Wild is a legendary American fiction novel by Jack London. Republished for the modern listener, this audiobook captures the vivid imagery and compelling prose that solidified London’s reputation as a literary legend, allowing listeners to enjoy this timeless story in an all-new light.

It has been famously pointed out that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, but it was also not an empire in the sense people expect when hearing the term. In theory, the emperor was the highest prince in Christendom, and his dominion extended the length and breadth of Western Europe. The empire had been created by the papacy in 801 when Pope Leo III famously crowned the supposedly unwitting Charlemagne in Saint Peter’s Basilica, intending to recreate the Western Roman Empire.

It has been famously pointed out that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, but it was also not an empire in the sense people expect when hearing the term. In theory, the emperor was the highest prince in Christendom, and his dominion extended the length and breadth of Western Europe. The empire had been created by the papacy in 801 when Pope Leo III famously crowned the supposedly unwitting Charlemagne in Saint Peter’s Basilica, intending to recreate the Western Roman Empire.

Tragically, the Cherokee is one of America’s best-known tribes due to the trials and tribulations they suffered by being forcibly moved west along the “Trail of Tears”, but that overlooks the contributions they made to American society well before the 19th century. Despite all of the hostilities and the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee ultimately became the first people of non-European descent to become US citizens en masse, and today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, boasting over 300,000 members.

Kris Kringle had a hell of a Christmas last year. This year isn't shaping up to be any better. The Workshop might have provided the enemy with a piece of jewelry she now wears around her neck. What is the purpose?

Since the dawn of humanity, people have both cared for those who have deceased yet also tried to keep them away, typically out of a fear of the dead. In time, that fear helped produce all kinds of legends and beliefs about the dead coming back, and one of the most persistent ones is of the vampire.

Living in the shadow of a famous parent is never easy. But having to endure the legacy of a legend whose music and life transformed a nation is even harder. As if the unwanted attention from fans, reporters, and endless onlookers isn't enough, there is intense pressure of expectation to keep up the public image of the parent.

One of the great ironies of the Enlightenment was that various societies produced the notion of the inalienable rights of man, bequeathed by God, alongside the long-established and deeply entrenched institution of slavery. As fate would have it, the refusal of Northern states to strictly apply the new fugitive slave law would be explicitly cited in several of the Southern states’ articles of secession in late 1860 and early 1861. In that regard, the Fugitive Slave Act ended up being one of the main tipping points that finally split the nation in two.

On April 27, 1898, six American ships of the line, led by the Olympia with Commodore George Dewey aboard, headed toward Manila Bay. After several days of sailing over the South China Sea, Dewey hoped to sail past the Spanish fort at Corregidor to arrive at Manila without detection, and sailed without lights in order to do so. He made it into the bay, where the naval battle with the Spanish South Pacific Squadron began in the wee hours of May 1, 1898.

Every day we hear new stories about people being attacked by cybercriminals. Companies being hacked and losing millions of people's personal details or being locked out of their systems and held to ransom.

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take four years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought. Since it did, however, historians and history buffs alike have been studying and analyzing the military and political history of the conflict ever since.

A short collection of dark poetry about the horrors of war, political folly, nature, the vagaries of life, and twisted introspection.

Born out of the fields of cotton and tobacco, the roots of country music spring from the rural soils of the South. Rising as a testimony to the hardships of poverty and despair, the music often reflects the seeds of hope while being firmly planted in the personal agony of heartache. In the genre of country music, there has never been a person who embodied this conflict of struggle more than Hank Williams Sr. Widely regarded as a major force in country music, this entertainer brought the soulful, simple music of the rural South into the mainstream conscience of America.

Machine learning is fast becoming an important technique used by multiple industries, and in applications and research. But you don’t have to be part of a massive organization with an endless pot of money to get involved. Even beginners using the Python programming language can be a part of machine learning, and that is what this book is for. Today, the only limit to machine learning is your imagination. In this book, I provide you with an overview of machine learning and some practical work to get your hands dirty.

In March 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the president to give arms to any nation if it was in America’s national interest. Operation Barbarossa gave the Soviets common cause with the British, and subsequently the Americans, changing the purpose of the Lend-Lease Act. Getting supplies to the Soviets to help them resist the German armies became a strategic imperative, and Iran’s geography of bordering the Persian Gulf to the south and Soviet territory to the north brought Iran to the front and center in the strategic supply effort.

While the age of the mythical, ethereal musician fades with each new generation, Johnny Cash resided in American culture for more than 40 years as a folk legend. Steeped in the gospel, his tale always had the qualities of prophecy and retribution. Some remember Cash as a slack-jawed ballad master who took on issues like civil rights, sovereignty, and social justice. Others recall his youth as a folk outcast who sang the lord’s music during the day and trashed hotel rooms at night. No matter which way you take it, Cash defined the word enigma.