Dorset ( DOR-sit; archaically: Dorsetshire DOR-sit-sheer, -⁠shər) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south-east, the English Channel to the south, and Devon to the west. The largest settlement is Bournemouth.

The county has an area of 2,653 km2 (1,024 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 798,914 in 2024. A conurbation on the south-east coast contains the towns of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole. The remainder of the county is largely rural, and its principal towns are the seaside resort of Weymouth in the south and Dorchester in the south-centre. For local government purposes, Dorset comprises two unitary authority areas: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. The county did not historically include Bournemouth and Christchurch, which were part of Hampshire.

Dorset has a varied landscape of chalk…

Read by Steinsky. Recorded April 22, 2005; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=155628951 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorset Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dorset.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

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Black American Sign Language (BASL) or Black Sign Variation (BSV) is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) used most commonly by deaf Black Americans in the United States. The divergence from ASL was influenced largely by the segregation of schools in the American South. Like other schools at the time, schools for the deaf were segregated based upon race, creating two language communities among deaf signers: Black deaf signers at Black schools and White deaf signers at White schools. As of the mid-2010s, BASL is still used by signers in the South despite public schools having been legally desegregated since 1954.

Linguistically, BASL differs from other varieties of ASL in its phonology, syntax, and vocabulary. BASL tends to have a larger signing space, meaning that some signs are produced farther away from the body than in other dialects. Signers of BASL also tend to prefer two-handed variants of signs, while signers of ASL tend to prefer one-handed variants. Some signs are…

Read by PopularOutcast. Recorded August 18, 2017; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=784175204 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_American_Sign_Language Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:En-Black_American_Sign_Language-article.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Ubuntu ( uu-BUUN-too) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical and a community of contributors under a meritocratic governance model, Ubuntu is released in multiple official editions: Desktop, Server, and Core for IoT and robotic devices.

Ubuntu is published on a six-month release cycle, with long-term support (LTS) versions issued every two years. Canonical provides security updates and support until each release reaches its designated end-of-life (EOL), with optional extended support available through the Ubuntu Pro and Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) services.

Ubuntu can be installed directly on hardware or run within a virtual machine. It is widely used for cloud computing, with integration support for platforms such as OpenStack. It is also one of the most popular Linux distributions for general desktop use, supported by extensive online communities such as Ask Ubuntu, and has…

Read by Omaryak. Recorded August 3, 2006; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=67403800 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ubuntu_(Linux_distribution).ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

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Half-Life: Blue Shift is an expansion pack for the first-person shooter video game Half-Life (1998). It was developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sierra On-Line. Blue Shift was the second expansion for Half-Life, originally intended as part of a Dreamcast port of Half-Life. Although the Dreamcast port was cancelled, the Windows version was released as a standalone product on June 12, 2001.

As with Gearbox's previous expansion pack, Opposing Force (1999), Blue Shift returns to the setting and events of Half-Life, but portrays the story through the eyes of another character. Players control security guard Barney Calhoun, employed by the Black Mesa Research Facility, who must fight his way to safety during an alien invasion. Blue Shift also includes a graphics pack that upgrades the Half-Life models and textures.

Blue Shift received mixed reviews. Many reviewers were critical of the short length and lack of new content, although the new graphics were praised.

Read by Peppage. Recorded May 29, 2019; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=898814618 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Blue_Shift Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:En-Half-Life_Blue_Shift-article.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license.

This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.

The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890. The genre is commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada.

The frontier is depicted in Western fiction as a sparsely populated, hostile region patrolled by cowboys, outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other stock gunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. Native American populations were often portrayed as averse foes or savages.

Originating in vaquero heritage and Western fiction, the genre popularized the Western lifestyle, country-Western music, and…

Read by Scott Burley. Recorded May 22, 2006; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=157621254 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_(genre) Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western(genre)-060526.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.

S4C is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience. S4C's headquarters are based in Carmarthen, at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David's creative and digital centre, Yr Egin. It also has regional offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff. As of 2024, S4C had an average of 118 employees. S4C is the fourth-oldest terrestrial television channel in Wales after BBC One, ITV and BBC Two.

As with Channel 4 (which launched the next day in the rest of the UK), S4C commissions all of its programmes from independent producers. BBC Cymru Wales produces programmes for S4C as part of its public service remit, including the news service Newyddion. From its launch until 2010, S4C also carried English-language programming acquired from Channel 4, which could not be received over-the-air in most of Wales; these programmes aired in non-peak hours and did not…

Read by Iceflow. Recorded June 24, 2008; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=451697850 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S4C Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Article_S4C_Rev_24-06-08.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

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Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc., 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992), is a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit applied American intellectual property law to the reverse engineering of computer software. Stemming from the publishing of several Sega Genesis games by video game publisher Accolade, which had disassembled Genesis software in order to publish games without being licensed by Sega, the case involved several overlapping issues, including the scope of copyright, permissible uses for trademarks, and the scope of the fair use doctrine for computer code.

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which ruled in favor of Sega and issued an injunction against Accolade preventing them from publishing any more games for the Genesis and requiring them to recall all the existing Genesis games they had for sale. Accolade appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit on the grounds that their reverse…

Read by 0x0077BE. Recorded November 29, 2014; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=635853153 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:En-Sega_v._Accolade-article.ogg License: CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

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Mu is a lost continent introduced by Augustus Le Plongeon, who identified the "Land of Mu" with Atlantis. The name was subsequently identified with the hypothetical land of Lemuria by James Churchward, who asserted that it was located in the Pacific Ocean before its destruction. The place of Mu in both pseudoscience and fantasy fiction is discussed in detail in Lost Continents (1954, 1970) by L. Sprague de Camp.

Geologists state that the existence of Mu and the lost continent of Atlantis has no factual basis, and is physically impossible, as a continent can neither sink nor be destroyed in the short period of time asserted in the legends, folklore and literature about these places.

Read by DivineMeaninglessness. Recorded January 8, 2014; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=735043804 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(mythical_lost_continent) Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:En-Mu_(lost_continent)-article.ogg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.

GRB 970508 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on May 8, 1997, at 21:42 UTC. It is historically important as the second GRB (after GRB 970228) with a detected afterglow at other wavelengths, the first to have a direct redshift measurement of the afterglow, and the first to be detected at radio wavelengths.

A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio).

GRB 970508 was detected by the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor on the Italian–Dutch X-ray astronomy satellite BeppoSAX. Astronomer Mark Metzger determined that GRB 970508 occurred at least 6 billion light years from Earth; this was the first measurement of the distance to a gamma-ray burst.

Until this burst, astronomers had not reached a consensus regarding how far away GRBs occur from…

Read by Stepleton. Recorded February 3, 2010; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=341637362 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_970508 Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GRB_970508.ogg License: GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits.

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I.M. Meen is a 1995 fantasy educational game for DOS to teach grammar to children. It is named for its villain, Ignatius Mortimer Meen, a "diabolical librarian" who lures young readers into an enchanted labyrinth and imprisons them with monsters and magic.

The goal of the game is to escape the labyrinth and free other children. This is accomplished by "shooting spiders and similar monsters" and deciphering grammatical mistakes in scrolls written by Meen.

The game was created by Russian-American company Animation Magic, which also animated the CD-i games Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. Peter Berkrot provided the voices of I.M. Meen and his gnome henchman, Gnorris.

Read by Filename99. Recorded August 5, 2026; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1358385572 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.M._Meen Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:En-I.M._Meen-article.ogg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license.

This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.