On April 20, 2010, the Macondo well blew out, costing the lives of 11 men, and beginning a catastrophe that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spilled over 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill disrupted an entire region's economy, damaged fisheries and critical habitats, and brought vividly to light the risks of deepwater drilling for oil and gas - the latest frontier in the national energy supply. Soon after, President Barack Obama appointed a seven-member Commission to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and recommend the actions necessary to minimize such risks in the future.

The Commission's report offers the ...

Robert Sherard was Oscar Wilde's friend of 20 years and first biographer. The Story of an Unhappy Friendship was the first of his four biographies of the Irish playwright and wit.

The clearness, simpicity, and charm of the great French naturalist's style are nowhere better illustrated than in this work, which in its variety of subject-matter and apt use of entertaining anecdote rivals "The Story-Book of Science," already a favorite with his readers. Such instances of antiquated usage or superseded methods as occur in these chapters of popular science easily win our indulgence because of the literary charm and warm human quality investing all that the author has to say. -- Translator (Introductory Note).

Forty European folk tales. Caveats: 1. Some of these stories are not suitable for young children. 2. In two stories (10 and 25) appear the nineteenth century’s almost-reflexive Jew-stereotype and anti-Semitism.

The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America was D.W. Griffith's first response to the attacks made on The Birth of a Nation. In it he played on the 'intolerance' of those who would not permit him freedom of speech in his films. This view on intolerance led directly to the creation of the film of the same name.

collection of children's fairytales including the tale of how the griffin lost one eye and Can't Shan't and Don't Care came to be giants.

Librivox volunteers bring you 12 readings of Oh! Where Do the Fairies Hide Their heads by Thomas Haynes Bayly. Oh! Where do the fairies hide their heads, When snow lies on the hills, When frost has spoiled their mossy beds, And crystallized their Rills? Beneath the moon they cannot trip In circles o’er the plain; And draughts of dew they cannot sip, Till green leaves come again.This was the weekly poetry project for February 15, 2015.

Most of us have passed through a period of life during which we have ardently longed to be, if not actually a rover, a buccaneer, or a pirate, at least and really a sailor! To run away to sea has been the misdirected ambition of many a youngster, and some lads there are who have realized their desire to their sorrow. The boy who has not cherished in his heart and exhibited in his actions at sometime or other during his youthful days, a love of ships and salt water, is fit for—well, he is fit for the shore, and that is the worst thing a sailor could say about him! (From the introduction, by Cyrus Townsend Brady)

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 058: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members.

Hard to imagine now, but there have been times and places where just wearing sandals could get you labeled as being in rebellion against established society. Two such places were Berkeley, California in the early 1960s and Millthorpe, England in the 1880s. Millthorpe was home to Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), an English socialist poet, philosopher, and activist who abandoned his upper crust life and university sinecure to grow market vegetables and handcraft sandals for a living. Carpenter’s search for the well-lived life, his passions and concerns resonate uncannily with the mood of long ago Berkeley. In this frank memoir, Carpenter explores how he “escaped from the domination of Civiliza...