Dennis E. Morris has narrated 6 audiobooks on Listento.it by 2 authors, with an average listener rating of 3★ across 5 ratings. The most-rated is The Klondike Gold Rush.
The Klondike Gold Rush
Summary
"Alaska is the land of the 19th century Argonauts; and the Golden Fleece hidden away among its snowcapped and glacier-clad mountains is not the pretty creation of mythological fame, but yellow nuggets, which may be transformed into the coin of the realm. The vast territory into which these hardy soldiers of fortune penetrate is no less replete with wonders than the fabled land into which Jason is said to have led his band of adventurers. There is this difference, however, between the frozen land of the North and the fabled land of mythology. There is nothing conjectural about Alaska or its golden treasure. Jason led his band into an unknown country without the certain knowledge that the treasure he was seeking was there." (A.C. Harris, author of Alaska and the Klondike Gold Mines ) One of the most important and memorable events of the United States' westward push across the frontier came with the discovery of gold, in the lands that became California, in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the country's power centers on the East Coast at the time, the announcement came a month before the Mexican-American War ended. It brought an influx of an estimated 90,000 "Forty-Niners" to the region in 1849, hailing from other parts of America and even as far away as Asia. All told, an estimated 300,000 people would come to California over the next few years, as men dangerously trekked thousands of miles in hopes of making a fortune. In a span of months, San Francisco's population exploded, making it one of the first mining boomtowns to truly spring up in the West. This was a pattern that would repeat itself across the West anytime a mineral discovery was made, from the Southwest and Tombstone to the Dakotas and Deadwood. Of course, it was all made possible by the collective memory of the original California gold rush.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
The Three Mile Island Accident: The History and Legacy of America's Worst Nuclear Meltdown
Summary
"On Wednesday, March 28, 1979, 36 seconds after the hour of 4:00 a.m., several water pumps stopped working in the unit 2 nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thus began the accident at Three Mile Island. In the minutes, hours, and days that followed, a series of events - compounded by equipment failures, inappropriate procedures, and human errors and ignorance - escalated into the worst crisis yet experienced by the nation's nuclear power industry. The accident focused national and international attention on the nuclear facility at Three Mile Island and raised it to a place of prominence in the minds of hundreds of millions. For the people living in such communities as Royalton, Goldsboro, Middletown, Hummelstown, Hershey, and Harrisburg, the rumors, conflicting official statements, a lack of knowledge about radiation releases, the continuing possibility of mass evacuation, and the fear that a hydrogen bubble trapped inside a nuclear reactor might explode were real and immediate. ...The reality of the accident, the realization that such an accident could actually occur, renewed and deepened the national debate over nuclear safety and the national policy of using nuclear reactors to generate electricity." - Findings in a report by the Presidential Commission established to investigate the accident.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
The Chernobyl Disaster: The History and Legacy of the World's Worst Nuclear Meltdown
Summary
Includes accounts from workers and residents Includes a bibliography for further reading "The risk projections suggest that by now Chernobyl may have caused about 1,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 4,000 cases of other cancers in Europe, representing about 0.01 percent of all incident cancers since the accident. Models predict that by 2065 about 16,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 25,000 cases of other cancers may be expected due to radiation from the accident, whereas several hundred million cancer cases are expected from other causes." (Findings in an article published in the International Journal of Cancer in 2006) Uranium is best known for the destructive power of the atom bombs, which ushered in the nuclear era at the end of World War II, but given the effectiveness of nuclear power, nuclear power plants were constructed around the developed world during the second half of the 20th century. While nuclear power plants were previously not an option and thus opened the door to new, more efficient, and more affordable forms of energy for domestic consumption, the use of nuclear energy understandably unnerved people living during the Cold War and amid ongoing nuclear detonations. After all, the damage wrought on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made clear to everyone what nuclear energy was capable of inflicting, and the health problems encountered by people exposed to the radiation also demonstrated the horrific side effects that could come with the use of nuclear weapons or the inability to harness the technology properly. The first major accident at a nuclear power plant took place at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, which took nearly 15 years and $1 billion to fully clean up, but Three Mile Island paled in comparison to Chernobyl, which to this day remains the most notorious nuclear accident in history.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
The Panama Canal
Summary
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood..." - Theodore Roosevelt Most people have heard of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but while not as many have heard of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, those who have are aware that the Panama Canal is considered one of them. In a world where few natural rivers carved out over eons of time have reached a length of more than 50 miles, the idea that a group of men could carve a canal of that length seemed impossible. In fact, many thought it could not be done. On the other hand, there was a tremendous motivation to try, because if a canal could be successfully cut across Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it would cut weeks off the time necessary to carry goods by sea from the well-established East Coast of the United States to the burgeoning West Coast. Moreover, traveling around the tip of South America was fraught with danger, and European explorers and settlers had proposed building a canal in Panama or Nicaragua several centuries before the Panama Canal was actually built. By the late 19th century, the French actually tried to build such a canal, only to fail after a great deal of resources were put into construction and after workers died of malaria and other illnesses. At the turn of the 20th century, not only was the need for a canal still there, but the right man was in the White House.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island: The History and Legacy of the World's Most Notorious Nuclear Accidents
Summary
Uranium is best known for the destructive power of the atom bombs, which ushered in the nuclear era at the end of World War II, but given the effectiveness of nuclear power, plants like those at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania were constructed to generate energy for Americans during the second half of the 20th century. While nuclear power plants were previously not an option and thus opened the door to new, more efficient, and more affordable forms of energy for domestic consumption, the use of nuclear energy understandably unnerved people living during the Cold War and amidst ongoing nuclear detonations. After all, the damage wrought on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made clear to everyone what nuclear energy was capable of inflicting, and the health problems encountered by people exposed to the radiation also demonstrated the horrific side effects that could come with the use of nuclear weapons or the inability to harness the technology properly. Thus, it seemed that everyone's worst fears were realized on March 28, 1979 when the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island suffered a partial meltdown. As bad as it was, Three Mile Island paled in comparison to Chernobyl, which to this day remains the most notorious nuclear accident in history. Located in the Ukraine, the Chernobyl power plant was undergoing experiments in the early morning hours of April 26, 1986 when it suffered a series of explosions in one of its nuclear reactors, killing over 30 people at the plant and spread radioactive fallout across a wide swath of the Soviet Union. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island chronicles the worst nuclear accident in history and the aftermath of the accident.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
Solar PV Off-Grid Power
Summary
Solar energy is a formidable resource. Solar electric power systems, based on PV panels, make effective power supplies for your off-grid electricity needs. The sun distributes over 1,000 watts per square meter at peak and is the natural power supply for life on Earth. The sun, can also be your power supply. The best kept industrial secret is that we don't need to burn fossil fuels for industrial power. Solar PV panels, true 21st century tools, can provide daily energy production that can be used directly, or stored for later use, on demand, to power your remote electric loads onsite - with no pollution or fuel costs. This book is a resource for building your own solar PV supply for remote cameras, LED lighting systems, communication, sensors, and remote cabin and home power systems with solar PV power system examples. The solar energy resource varies with time of day, season, and local climate. Solar PV panels, sized properly, produce reliable and predictable energy production, despite daily variations, when calculated properly for each month. Tap into PV panels to charge battery banks for reliable DC, and, with inverters, AC power on demand. Remote site power supplies, designed and installed properly, offer real power for running a variety of electronic, motor, and large draw devices. Use this audiobook to match your energy load with the energy production sized to match your electric loads for remote solar PV power. System examples range from 30-watt solar PV power supplies for cameras, electronics, and sensors, to 4,000-watt home power systems.
©2014 Christopher Kinkaid (P)2015 Christopher Kinkaid