Showing results by narrator "Mark Ashby"

Stop me if this sounds familiar: You’re about to install a new game or shoot more video on your smartphone, but then a message pops up on the screen that says something like “There is not enough available storage.” Sheesh.

Starting in 1948 and reaching its climax during the Six-Day War of 1967, The Hope begins the story of Israel, a country fighting for its life - outmatched and surrounded by enemies. Zev Barak, Sam Pasternak, Don Kishote, and Benny Luria are all officers in the Israeli Army, caught up in the sweep of history, fighting the desperate desert battles and meeting the larger-than-life personalities that shaped Israel’s fight for independence. 

The Glory plunges immediately into the violence and upheaval of the Six-Day War of 1967 - and continues the dramatic story of Israel’s struggle for survival. A sprawling, action-packed novel, Wouk takes listeners through the terrors of the Yom Kippur War, the famous Entebbe rescue, and the airstrikes on Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor - ending with the final hope for peace. 

If you have not heard any proposals for a “universal basic income” (UBI), you will soon. Under a UBI, the federal government would send each American (including children, in some plans) a monthly check of, say, $800 or $1,000 to cover basic needs. A couple would receive $20,000 per year, regardless of other income earned; a family with children would get more. The bloated welfare state? Poverty? Solved! And all of it supposedly paid for by eliminating safety net programs that would no longer be necessary.

Brainfluence explains how to practically apply neuroscience and behavior technology and behavior research to better market to consumers by understanding their decision patterns. This application, called neuromarketing, studies the way the brain responds to various cognitive and sensory marketing stimuli. Analysts use this to measure a consumer's preference, what a customer reacts to, and why consumers make certain decisions.

It opposes constitutional democracy and is bad for America.

Every 13,000 years on Earth a sacred and secret event takes place that changes everything. Mother Earth's Kundalini energy emerges from its resting place in the planet's core and moves like a snake across the surface of our world. Once at home in ancient Lemuria, it moved to Atlantis, then to the Himalayan mountains of India and Tibet, and with every relocation changed our idea of what spiritual means. And gender. And heart. This time, with much difficulty, the Serpent of Light has moved to the Andes Mountains of Chile and Peru.

Why social and economic opportunity rise or fall together.

Amazon is making it easier for customers to get free shipping with their orders, regardless of whether they subscribe to its Prime service.

"It's Easier to Get Free Amazon Shipping Now, Even Without Prime" is from the February 20, 2017 Tech section of USA Today. It was written by Brett Molina and narrated by Mark Ashby.

Spending more and more, getting less and less.

"Our Medicaid Mess" is from the September 12, 2016 issue of National Review.

The environmental Left is having a panic.

America’s wars of the 20th century seem to confirm that ancient wisdom. A complacent, naïve, and isolationist United States came late to both world wars. Nonetheless, once engaged, the United States almost immediately amassed huge armies ex nihilo and produced unprecedented quantities of arms to ensure Allied victories in both conflicts. No other power fought in so many theaters of battle to such effect and with such consideration for reducing its own casualties.

When bullets start to fly, who cares who is their target?

Our system of government does little to prevent a strongman or a crank from winning the presidency. Recognizing this, the Constitution’s framers tightly circumscribed the president’s role, checking it horizontally with coequal branches that resist sudden change and vertically with the many powers reserved to the states. Throughout American history, no shortage of questionable characters has run for and even attained the presidency.

The Somme: these words conjure the image of war rigidly fought by traditional means even when catastrophe clearly loomed. Relying on personal testimonies never before published, this study of those who survived the first day of battle (July 1, 1916) captures this epic conflagration from all angles. Follow the action as soldiers crawl across No Man’s Land in the face of German guns, struggle with the conditions in the trenches, and survey the scene from the air as the RFC tries to control the skies above the battlefield.

Once every eight years comes a day perfect for hiding the most unpopular and ill-advised policy decisions. It arrives right after a second-term president’s midterm elections, when he will never again face the ire of voters, and right before Thanksgiving, when the nation shuts down and travels home to visit family. And so President Obama chose Wednesday, November 26, 2014, to announce a substantial tightening of the Clean Air Act that will prevent industrial growth across large swathes of the United States.

Most presidents, before and after holding office, are offered multifarious opportunities to get rich, most of them unimaginable to Americans without access to influential and wealthy concerns. But none have so flagrantly circumvented laws and ethical norms as have Bill and Hillary Clinton, a tandem who in little more than a decade went from self-described financial want to a net worth likely over $100 million, or even $150 million.

A decade after the cold war ended, policy makers and academics foresaw a new era of peace and prosperity, an era in which democracy and open trade would herald the "end of history." The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, sadly shattered these idyllic illusions, and John Mearsheimer's masterful new book explains why these harmonious visions remain utopian.

"Biggest Twists and Turns in 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'" is from the July 31, 2016, Life section of The USA Today. It was written by Kelly Lawler and narrated by Mark Ashby.

Once upon a time, “moral relativism” — the tendency to draw comparisons between the conduct of the United States and its enemies — was the bane of American conservatives.

"Trump Bows to Russia Again: Max Boot" is from the February 06, 2017 Opinion section of USA Today. It was written by Max Boot and narrated by Mark Ashby.