Church Bells
Noon church bells in Washington, DC, Foundry United Methodist Church
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Sacramento California
This Vietnam Veterans Memorial is located near 15th Street and Capitol Avenue in State Capitol Park in Sacramento, California.
It is a multi-million dollar memorial that is circular in design with more than 20 engraved black granite panels with the names of at least 5,800 Californians who are dead or missing.
At the center of the memorial are a series of bronze statues and relief sculptures that depict scenes of daily life during the war.
When I was a little girl I watched many Army trucks transport men to Oakland, California from where they were sent to Vietnam. I watched this war on television and wondered why, when we have telephones, are we having this war.
Here I Stand: Conscience, Reformation, and Religious Freedom Across the Centuries Panel 1
For more on this event, visit:
For more on the Berkley Center, visit:
November 1, 2017 | On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses urging sweeping religious reforms and catalyzing the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation unleashed an intensified focus on freedom of conscience, with dramatic social and political consequences. It fostered new notions of religious liberty as well as new frameworks for civic life. At the same time, the Reformation built upon centuries of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologies of conscience, dignity, and freedom in ways that are not always understood.
This symposium explored these dynamics, but also examined how Christianity per se has unleashed distinctive and powerful principles of conscience and freedom across its 2,000-year history, even in the face of what Pope Francis has called the “ecumenism of blood”—the severe religious persecution affecting numerous Christian and non-Christian communities around the world.
This symposium was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion and commemorated the launch of the two-volume series Christianity and Freedom.
Manhattan | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:04:59 1 Etymology
00:06:16 2 History
00:06:25 2.1 Colonial era
00:10:42 2.2 American Revolution and the early United States
00:12:13 2.3 19th century
00:15:37 2.4 20th century
00:19:40 2.5 21st century
00:22:15 3 Geography
00:22:24 3.1 Components
00:23:26 3.1.1 Manhattan Island
00:24:53 3.1.2 Marble Hill
00:25:46 3.1.3 Smaller islands
00:26:19 3.2 Geology
00:26:28 3.2.1 Bedrock
00:27:35 3.2.2 Updated seismic analysis
00:28:12 3.3 Locations
00:28:21 3.3.1 Adjacent counties
00:28:53 3.3.2 National protected areas
00:29:31 3.3.3 Neighborhoods
00:33:07 3.4 Climate
00:35:55 3.5 Boroughscapes
00:36:04 4 Demographics
00:40:39 4.1 Religion
00:41:35 4.2 Languages
00:42:56 5 Landmarks and architecture
00:44:11 5.1 Architectural history
00:49:02 5.2 Parkland
00:51:23 6 Economy
00:52:38 6.1 Financial sector
00:54:27 6.2 Corporate sector
00:55:26 6.3 Technology sectors
00:58:23 6.4 Tourism
00:59:24 6.5 Real estate
01:01:11 6.6 Media
01:01:19 6.6.1 News
01:02:08 6.6.2 Television, radio, film
01:03:44 7 Education
01:08:32 8 Culture and contemporary life
01:15:01 9 Sports
01:19:40 10 Government
01:22:19 10.1 Politics
01:24:01 10.1.1 Representatives in the U.S. Congress
01:25:32 10.2 Federal offices
01:26:13 10.3 Crime and public safety
01:28:49 11 Housing
01:30:55 12 Infrastructure
01:31:04 12.1 Transportation
01:31:13 12.1.1 Public transportation
01:36:12 12.1.2 Major highways
01:36:38 12.1.3 Taxis
01:37:05 12.1.4 Bicycles
01:37:18 12.1.5 Streets and roads
01:41:32 12.1.6 River crossings
01:43:53 12.1.7 Heliports
01:44:47 12.2 Utilities
01:46:43 12.3 Health care
01:47:24 12.4 Water purity and availability
01:49:08 12.5 Address algorithm
01:49:34 13 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
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Speaking Rate: 0.9662664637537199
Voice name: en-US-Wavenet-D
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Manhattan (), often referred to locally as the City, is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with its long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.
Manhattan is often described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, and the borough hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, and Manhattan is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization: the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in Manhattan, and the borough has been the setting for numerous books, films, and television shows. Manhattan is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders, which equals roughly US$1038 in current terms. Manhattan real estate has since become among the most expensive in the world, with the value of Manhattan Island, including real estate, estimated to exceed US$3 trillion in 2013; median residential property sale prices in Manhattan approximated US$1,600 per square foot ($17,000/m2) as of 2018, with Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commanding the highest retail rents in the world, at US$3,000 per square foot ($32,000/m2) in 2017.Manhattan traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 16 ...
United Church of Christ | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
United Church of Christ
00:01:57 1 History
00:02:41 2 Beliefs
00:04:16 2.1 Historic confessions
00:06:11 2.2 Studies and surveys of beliefs
00:09:09 2.3 Relationships with other denominations
00:11:19 2.4 Relationships with other religions
00:11:41 3 Structure
00:13:46 3.1 Local churches
00:18:20 3.2 Larger organizations
00:18:29 3.2.1 Associations
00:19:58 3.2.2 Conferences
00:22:22 3.2.3 General Synod
00:24:47 3.2.4 National offices: covenanted, affiliated, and associated ministries
00:25:33 3.2.4.1 Covenanted ministries
00:28:41 3.2.4.2 Affiliated ministry
00:29:50 3.2.4.3 Associated ministry
00:30:19 4 Activities
00:30:28 4.1 Civil Rights Movement
00:31:09 4.2 Social activism
00:31:29 4.2.1 Same-sex marriage
00:33:29 4.2.2 Apology Resolution
00:33:51 4.2.3 Statement on the relationship between Israel and Palestinians
00:35:34 4.3 Sexuality education
00:36:34 4.4 God Is Still Speaking identity campaign
00:38:21 5 Criticism
00:38:53 5.1 Criticism over same-sex marriage
00:39:28 6 Barack Obama and the UCC
00:41:18 7 Membership
00:43:16 8 United Church of Christ institutions
00:43:27 8.1 Officially related educational institutions
00:43:37 8.1.1 Seminaries
00:44:20 8.1.2 Colleges and universities
00:45:45 8.1.3 Secondary academies
00:46:01 8.2 Historically related educational institutions
00:46:11 8.2.1 Historically related seminaries
00:46:53 8.2.2 Historically related colleges and universities (Council for Higher Education)
00:48:03 8.2.3 Other colleges and universities (historically related, currently unrelated)
00:49:40 9 List of prominent UCC churches
00:52:55 10 List of famous UCC members
00:53:15 10.1 Politicians
00:55:04 10.2 Others
00:57:20 11 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a liberal-leaning mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical confessional roots in the Congregational, Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,956 churches and 854,000 members. The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Pilgrims and Puritans. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Reformed group in the country, the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC. These two denominations, which were themselves the result of earlier unions, had their roots in Congregational, Lutheran, Evangelical, and Reformed denominations. At the end of 2014, the UCC's 5,116 congregations claimed 979,239 members, primarily in the U.S. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 0.4 percent, or 1 million adult adherents, of the U.S. population self-identify with the United Church of Christ.The UCC maintains full communion with other mainline Protestant denominations. Many of its congregations choose to practice open communion. The denomination places high emphasis on participation in worldwide interfaith and ecumenical efforts. The national settings of the UCC have historically favored liberal views on social issues, such as civil rights, LGBT rights, women's rights, and abortion. However, United Church of Christ congregations are independent in matters of doctrine and ministry and may not necessarily support the national body's theological or moral stances. It is self-described as an extremely pluralistic and diverse denomination.
Manhattan | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Manhattan
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Manhattan (), often referred to locally as the City, is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, its cultural identifier, and its historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with its long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.
Manhattan is often described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, and the borough hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, and Manhattan is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization: the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in Manhattan, and the borough has been the setting for numerous books, films, and television shows. Manhattan is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders, which equals roughly US$1050 in current terms. Manhattan real estate has since become among the most expensive in the world, with the value of Manhattan Island, including real estate, estimated to exceed US$3 trillion in 2013; median residential property sale prices in Manhattan approximated US$1,600 per square foot ($17,000/m2) as of 2018, with Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commanding the highest retail rents in the world, at US$3,000 per square foot ($32,000/m2) in 2017.Manhattan traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York, based in present-day Manhattan, served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a world symbol of the United States and its ideals of liberty and peace. Manhattan became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898.
New York County is the United States' second-smallest county by land area (larger only than Kalawao County, Hawaii), and is also the most densely populated U.S. county. It is also one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a census-estimated 2017 population of 1,664,727 living in a land area of 22.83 square miles (59.13 km2), or 72,918 residents per square mile (28,154/km2), higher than the density of any individual U.S. city. On business days, the influx of commuters increases this number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile (65,600/km2). Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York City's five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, and is the smallest borough in terms of land area.Many districts and landmarks in Manhattan are well known, as New York City received a record 62.8 million tourists in 2017, and Manhattan hosts three of the world's 10 most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, and Grand Central Terminal. The borough hosts many prominent bridges, such as the Brooklyn Bridge; skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building; and parks, such as Central Park. Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese ...
American Revolution | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
American Revolution
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America. They defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in alliance with France and others.
Members of American colonial society argued the position of no taxation without representation, starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. They rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they lacked members in that governing body. Protests steadily escalated to the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, followed by the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, during which Patriots destroyed a consignment of taxed tea. The British responded by closing Boston Harbor, then followed with a series of legislative acts which effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self-government and caused the other colonies to rally behind Massachusetts. In late 1774, the Patriots set up their own alternative government to better coordinate their resistance efforts against Great Britain; other colonists preferred to remain aligned to the Crown and were known as Loyalists or Tories.
Tensions erupted into battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when the king's army attempted to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots (and later their French, Spanish, and Dutch allies) fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). Each of the thirteen colonies formed a Provincial Congress that assumed power from the old colonial governments and suppressed Loyalism, and from there they built a Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington. The Continental Congress determined King George's rule to be tyrannical and infringing the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they declared the colonies free and independent states on July 2, 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all men are created equal.
The Continental Army forced the redcoats out of Boston in March 1776, but that summer the British captured and held New York City and its strategic harbor for the duration of the war. The Royal Navy blockaded ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but they failed to defeat Washington's forces. The Patriots unsuccessfully attempted to invade Canada during the winter of 1775–76, but successfully captured a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. France now entered the war as an ally of the United States with a large army and navy that threatened Britain itself. The war turned to the American South where the British under the leadership of Charles Cornwallis captured an army at Charleston, South Carolina in early 1780 but failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory. A combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781, effectively ending the war. The Treaty of Paris was signed September 3, 1783, formally ending the conflict and confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada and Spain taking Florida.
Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of the United States Constitution, establishing a relatively strong federal national government that included an executive, a national judiciary, and a bicameral Congress that represented states in the Senate and the ...
Philadelphia | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:04:50 1 History
00:17:48 2 Geography
00:17:58 2.1 Topography
00:20:12 2.2 Cityscape
00:20:20 2.2.1 City planning
00:23:18 2.2.2 Architecture
00:26:37 2.3 Climate
00:31:12 2.3.1 Air quality
00:32:51 3 Demographics
00:45:48 3.1 Religion
00:47:19 3.2 Languages
00:48:52 3.2.1 Dialect
00:49:55 4 Economy
00:54:02 5 Education
00:54:11 5.1 Primary and secondary education
00:56:59 5.2 Higher education
00:58:38 6 Culture
01:00:53 6.1 Arts
01:03:46 6.2 Music
01:06:35 6.3 Cuisine
01:08:28 7 Sports
01:13:50 8 Parks
01:14:56 9 Law and government
01:16:26 9.1 Courts
01:19:04 9.2 Politics
01:23:43 9.3 Crime
01:27:50 10 Media
01:27:59 10.1 Newspapers
01:30:02 10.2 Radio
01:31:49 10.3 Television
01:34:08 11 Infrastructure
01:34:17 11.1 Transportation
01:36:28 11.1.1 Airports
01:37:41 11.1.2 Roads
01:41:16 11.1.3 Bus service
01:42:06 11.1.4 Rail
01:44:03 11.1.5 Walk Score ranks
01:45:04 11.2 Utilities
01:49:27 12 Notable people
01:49:37 13 Sister Cities
01:51:29 14 Gallery
01:51:44 15 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
Other Wikipedia audio articles at:
Upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
Speaking Rate: 0.8560520258377133
Voice name: en-US-Wavenet-D
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Philadelphia, sometimes known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, and the Siege of Fort Mifflin. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and a railroad hub. The city grew from an influx of European immigrants, most of whom came from Ireland, Italy and Germany—the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city as of 2015. In the early 20th century, Philadelphia became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War, as well as Puerto Ricans. The city's population doubled from one million to two million people between 1890 and 1950.
The Philadelphia area's many universities and colleges make it a top study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational and economic hub. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia area had a gross domestic product of US$445 billion in 2017, the eighth-largest metropolitan economy in the United States. Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania and is home to five Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is expanding, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016, including several nationally prominent skyscrapers. Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent ...