[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Dec 15 10:18:23 PST 2004
GWeekly_December_15.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, December 15, 2004 PT1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
57 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
14,707 eBooks As Of Today!!!
11,645 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Now Produced about 3,800 eBooks In 2004
We Are Already 70% of the Way from 14,000 to 15,000
We Are 96% of the Way from 10,000 to 15,000
293 to go to 15,000!!!
We have now averaged ~440 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
We Are Averaging About 340 eBooks Per Month This Year
About 78 Per Week
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 eBooks
*
HEADLINE NEWS!!!
AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT CHOOSES TO CHANGE COPYRIGHT RULES
[Depite a resolution passed to the contrary three years ago. . . .
This is what is known as "economic warfare," and, as in warfare
in general, it is the public who loses the most.]
The final element of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
has passed through the Australian federal parliament.
Copyright changes in last-minute talks are designed to:
1.
Enable people other than copyright owners to force ISPs
to remove materials allegedly infringing copyright.
2.
Take effect on January 1, 2005.
3.
Extended Australian copyright 20 years to now
reach 70 years past the lifespan of the author.
***
On the other hand, Project Gutenberg is getting great PR from:
THE DA VINCI CODE
"For their generous assistance in the research of the book, I would
like to acknowledge the Louvre Museum, the French Ministry of Culture,
Project Gutenberg, Bibliothe`que Nationale, the Gnostic Society Library,
the Department of Paintings Study and Documentation Service at the Louvre,
Catholic World News, Royal Observatory Greenwich, London Record Society,
the Muniment Collection at Westminster Abbey, John Pike and the Federation
of American Scientists, and the five members of Opus Dei (three active,
two former) who recounted their stories, both positive and negative,
regarding their experiences inside Opus Dei."
***
eMusic
In our efforts to further the digitization of sheet music, Project
Gutenberg also recommends the Mutopia Project. The following was
contributed by the project team leader, Chris Sawer:
"The Mutopia project consists of a growing online collection of sheet
music, all of which may be freely downloaded, printed, copied,
distributed, modified, performed and recorded. It has just celebrated
its fifth year online, and now has nearly 500 works, ranging from
simple pieces for solo instruments, to large orchestral pieces and even
an entire opera. Composers from Bach to Vivaldi are featured, along
with some early jazz, and some modern pieces which have been released
under a free license by their composers. Visit our website to see what
we've got - and maybe contribute some music yourself!"
Website: http://www.MutopiaProject.org
And please see the other information at http://www.gutenberg.org/music/
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Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck <JBuck814366460 at aol.com>
***Introduction
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 11.40 months of this year, we produced 3800 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to December 2002 to produce our first 3,800 eBooks!
That's 49 WEEKS as Compared to ~31.5 Years!
58 New eBooks This Week
78 New eBooks Last Week
136 New eBooks This Month [Dec]
334 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
3800 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
11645 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 47.40 Months!
14,707 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
10,695 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,012 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
390 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
We're still keeping up with Moore's Law!
Moore's Law 12 month percentage = 64%
Moore's Law 18 month percentage = 118%
[100% of Moore's Law = doubling every 18 months]
[There may be some need to refine our program for these figures]
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on Mar 13th, 2001, the
Distributed Proofreaders team has now produced its 5,967th eBook (#14358).
Of that total, there are 5,598 unique, brand-new titles.
Projects completed since the beginning of the year:
Jan 2004 - 267
Feb 2004 - 421
Mar 2004 - 365
Apr 2004 - 276
May 2004 - 235
Jun 2004 - 232
Jul 2004 - 231
Aug 2004 - 220
Sep 2004 - 182
Oct 2004 - 263
Nov 2004 - 280
Dec 2004 - 122 (as of 15 Dec)
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
[John just got married, and we we're still giving
him a few weeks off. . . . Congratulations!!!!!!!]
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections holdings
of 15 collections. . .with this week's listing as:
Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files
Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files
The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files
DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files
eBooks at Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files
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Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files
Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files
Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files
CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files==========106,407 Total Files=====
These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of
their donors: some are one file per book, some have a
file for each chapter, and some even have a file for a
single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons
I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the
overcounting or duplication of numbers.
If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
35,469 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
26,602 Unique eBooks
***
Today Is Day #343 of 2004
This Completes Week #49 and Month #11.40
21 Days/10 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
293 Books To Go To #15,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
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Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 49 weeks of this year, we have produced 3,800 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 3,800 eBooks!!!
That's 49 WEEKS as Compared to ~31.5 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3800
Feb 2003 The Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza [Spinoza #11][ethicxxx.xxx] 3800
[Full Latin Title: Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata] [Trans: Elwes]
Feb 2003 Landholding In England, by Joseph Fisher[Fisher#2][lndiexxx.xxx] 3799
Feb 2003 Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, by Captain Gronow[grnowxxx.xxx] 3798
Feb 2003 In the Days of the Comet, by H. G. Wells 3797
Feb 2003 Rilla of Ingleside, by Lucy Maud Montgomery[LMM#7][rillaxxx.xxx] 3796
Feb 2003 Under the Lilacs, by Louisa May Alcott [Alcott #9 [ullcsxxx.xxx] 3795
Feb 2003 L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits, by Aubrey Stewart [bnftsxxx.xxx] 3794
Feb 2003 Joseph II. and His Court, by L. Muhlbach [LM #8][j2ahcxxx.xxx] 3793
Feb 2003 Capitola The Madcap, by Emma D. E. N. Southworth [mdcapxxx.xxx] 3792
Feb 2003 The Reign Of Law, by James Lane Allen [rolawxxx.xxx] 3791
Feb 2003 Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw[G. B. Shaw #22][mjbrbxxx.xxx] 3790
Feb 2003 Preface to Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw[#21][pmbrbxxx.xxx] 3789
Feb 2003 Haydn, by J. Cuthbert Hadden [Master Musicians] [hhmmsxxx.xxx] 3788
Feb 2003 Nature And Art, by Mrs. [Elizabeth] Inchbald [naartxxx.xxx] 3787
Feb 2003 Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Henry Kingsley[hmlynxxx.xxx] 3786
With 14,707 eBooks online as of December 15, 2004 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.68 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $.94 when we had 10,069 eBooks a year ago
Can you imagine ~14,707 books each costing ~$.26 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine ~14,707 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 14,707 eBooks in 33 Years and 05.40 Months We Averaged
440 Per Year [We do about 3/4 that much per month these days!]
36.6 Per Month
1.20 Per Day
At 3800 eBooks Done In The 343 Days Of 2004 We Averaged
11 Per Day
78 Per Week
340 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 7th was
the first Wednesday of 2004, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2003 and began the production year of 2004 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
***
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
>From NewsScan:
GOOGLE CUTS DEAL WITH LIBRARIES TO DIGITIZE HOLDINGS
Flush with new wealth after its IPO last summer, Google has offered
to underwrite the cost of digitizing library collections at Harvard,
Stanford, Oxford, the University of Michigan and the New York Public
Library. Although company executives declined to comment on the total
funding amount, one estimate pegs it at $10 for each of the more than 15
million books and other documents covered in the agreement. The
announcement comes as a number of other library digitization projects are
underway, including one at the Library of Congress to put selections of its
best holdings online and one at the University of California to create the
California Digital Library. In addition, the Library of Congress and a
group of international libraries from the U.S., Canada, Egypt, China and
the Netherlands say they're planning to create a publicly available digital
archive of one million books on the Internet. The trend toward online
libraries and virtual card catalogs has publishers scrambling to respond
and libraries rethinking their central mission as storehouses of printed,
indexed material. "Our world is about to change in a big, big way," says
Daniel Greenstein, university librarian for the California Digital Library.
Instead of devoting time and effort to maintaining physical collections,
libraries in the future can focus on gathering information and making it
accessible online. (New York Times 14 Dec 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/technology/14google.html>
CONCERNS ABOUT GOOGLE'S ONLINE READING ROOM
Google's new plan to digitize the collections of leading research
libraries to establish a massive online reading room causes some librarians
to fear the commercialization of their institutions. Duane Webster,
executive director of the Association of Research Libraries, explains,
"There is anxiety about whether the student researcher, scholar or citizen
will be guided into the free public access rather than being lured into a
purchasing relationship with the publisher." Webster suggests that to allay
those fears, free, open access must remain an option. However, he also makes
clear that the greater good of expanding the public's access to resources
outweighs the eventual possibility that ads would be attached to library
materials. Brewster Kahle, founder and president of the Internet Archive,
comments: "The public domain belongs to the public and should be publicly
accessible without running only into commercial interests. There's room for
both, and I hope that we do not evolve into an either-or situation." (AP/San
Jose Mercury News 15 Dec 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10416638.htm>
MOBILE PHONES TO OUTNUMBER LAND LINES
Cell phones are expected to generate more revenue this year than
traditional land line phones in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according
to a new report by the International Telecommunication Union. Just four
years ago, fixed-line phone revenue was nearly double that of wireless, but
mobile phone use is growing rapidly, especially in developing countries
where wireless networks are much cheaper to install than traditional
terrestrial ones. "Virtually all the global growth in the telecoms service
sector over the last decade has come from the mobile sector, broadband and
other data services," says Susan Schorr, one of the authors of the study.
"Taken together, the value of mobile and other non-voice services is now
greater than that of the traditional fixed-line telephone service, which
had been the mainstay of public telecommunication operators since the late
19th century." Since 2000, four-fifths of all growth in mobile phone sales
took place in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. "The
developing world is where most of the potential for future growth
resides," says Schorr, who adds that broadband is catching on in those
countries as well, with China expected to overtake the U.S. this year as
the world's biggest broadband market. (AP 10 Dec 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041210/D86SR8GO0.html>
U.S. AND TIME WARNER: LET'S SETTLE UP
[AOL Finally Bites The Bullet]
Time Warner has agreed to settle with the government in two separate
cases: the Justice Department's investigation of whether AOL's advertising
deals with smaller Internet companies were used to exaggerate AOL growth,
and the SEC's investigation into accounting irregularities at the company.
Time Warner is expected to pay $500-600 million to settle all civil and
criminal accusations with the two agencies. (New York Times 15 Dec 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/business/media/15media.html>
DISSIN' CHINA
[Not all news coming out of China is positive]
Law enforcement authorities in China have banned the new British
computer game "Football Manager 2005" because it refers to Taiwan as a
separate country, contrary to the mainland government's insistence that
Taiwan belongs to China. The government is searching for the game online and
in computer software markets, cybercafes, and places that sell pirated
software. A spokesman for the game's developer, Sports Interactive, says
it's working on a Chinese version for release in China that will comply with
local requirements: "We will follow the correct submission and approval
process within China and look forward to feedback from the Chinese
authorities on any modifications that may be required." Last week China also
banned a Nike television commercial it says is disrespectful and blasphemous
toward Chinese culture. The ad features NBA star LeBron James in a mock
video with a kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese attire, and a
pair of dragons. (AP/9 Nov 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041209/D86S32RG0.html>
IT'S OFFICIAL: IBM STRIKES DEAL TO SELL PC DIVISION
[IBM goes back to being monolithic, leaves PC world for Big Business]
[N.B. the price is 1/8 as much as Oracle paid for PeopleSoft!]
IBM is selling its PC business to Chinese computer giant Lenovo Group
for $1.25 billion in cash and stock. As part of the deal, IBM will own an
18.9% stake in Lenovo, which will be allowed to use the IBM brand for five
years, as well as other trademarks on PCs and notebook computers. The sale
vaults Lenovo to a solid No. 3 slot in the global PC market, behind Dell
and Hewlett-Packard. In a message to IBM workers, chairman Sam Palmisano
(who once headed the PC business) said the move was part of the company's
strategy to focus on making products for large government and industry
customers. "The PC business is rapidly taking on characteristics of the
home and consumer electronic industry, which favors economies of scale,
pricing power and a focus on individual users and buyers," wrote Palmisano.
(Wall Street Journal 8 Dec 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110247027599793998,00.html> (sub req'd)
MICROSOFT UNVEILS DESKTOP SEARCH TOOL
Hot on the heels of Google's Desktop Search launch two months ago,
Microsoft has rolled out its competing MSN Toolbar Suite that enables users
to search for keywords in a variety of types of files, from e-mails to
instant messages to PDFs. Google's Desktop Search does not support searches
in PDF files but, unlike MSN Toolbar, it does record all Web pages visited.
Both products are still in beta stage, but meanwhile the competition is
heating up with Yahoo's announcement last week that it will launch a
desktop search product in January, and AOL's plans to join the fray
sometime early next year. (AP 13 Dec 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041214/D86V2VP00.html>
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan: NewsScan Daily
is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
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*
>From Edupage
PENN STATE URGES MOVING FROM IE
Officials in the Information Technology Services department at
Pennsylvania State University have sent a notice to students suggesting
that they switch to a browser other than Internet Explorer (IE) to
increase the security of their computers. Recent reports in the media
about IE vulnerabilities, as well as warnings from the Computer
Emergency and Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University, prompted
Penn State's recommendation that students look at browsers including
Firefox, Safari, and Opera. A spokesperson for the university said,
"We're not telling people to wipe off IE, because you need IE to do
operating-system updates." As part of a two-month campaign to increase
computer security across campus, however, the university is urging
students to examine other browsers and to consider the benefits they
might provide for increased protection from malicious code. Also
included in the security campaign are reminders for students to install
firewalls and antivirus software, to keep those applications updated,
and to install operating-system updates regularly.
CNET, 9 December 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5485834.html
IPOD REQUIREMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL
The Brearley School, a private girls' school in New York, has
instituted an iPod requirement for about 300 students in grades 7
through 12. Some higher education institutions have similar
requirements, including Duke University and Georgia College and State
University, but this is reportedly the first such program at the
secondary level. Students at Brearley will use the devices primarily
for foreign languages and classics. Students can use their iPods to
keep audio diaries, practice speaking foreign languages, and download
and listen to lessons and other course content. Although the
educational value of the technology remains an unknown quantity,
teachers at Brearley noted that the "wow" factor of the iPods for
teenage girls would likely benefit the initiative. At Duke, which
issued iPods to 1,650 incoming freshmen this fall, the devices are also
used in foreign language classes, among others. Lisa Merschel, who
teaches Spanish at Duke, said she does not "necessarily see a
correlation between using the iPod and an increased fluency in the
language." Still, said Merschel, the iPods "helped me to see how [the
students] were progressing as a class."
New York Times, 9 December 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/09/technology/circuits/09ipod.html
IBM SELLS PC UNIT TO CHINESE COMPANY
Following news reports (see Edupage, December 3) on the possibility,
IBM has agreed to sell its personal computer unit to China's largest
PC maker, Lenovo, for $1.75 billion in cash, stock, and debt. IBM will
assume a 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo. The IBM PC business will
continue to be run by its current management team and be based in the
United States. Although based in Beijing, Lenovo plans to establish
headquarters in New York. IBM will continue to handle technical
support, financing, and warranty coverage for its former PC division.
New York Times, 8 December 2004 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/technology/08computer.html
PEOPLESOFT BOARD APPROVES SALE TO ORACLE
After 18 months of wrangling, legal actions, and regulatory review, the
PeopleSoft Board of Directors has approved a buyout offer from Oracle.
The deal is valued at about $10.3 billion, or $26.50 per share, despite
Oracle's insistence that $24 per share was its best offer. The higher
price came after Oracle executives gained access to PeopleSoft's
financial statements and determined the target company was more
profitable than Oracle's earlier estimates. Oracle has promised strong
support for current PeopleSoft customers, as well as those of J.D.
Edwards, which PeopleSoft acquired during the takeover efforts by
Oracle. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said development teams from both
PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards would be retained and would operate
independently. Ellison said updates to applications from both companies
would be developed in the next year or two. Pending legal action over
the merger will be suspended until the transaction is completed, at
which point litigation will be dismissed. The deal is expected to close
at the end of January.
CNET, 13 December 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-7343_3-5488298.html
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TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
SPACE STATION CREW ENDURES FOOD SHORTAGE
[You spend billions on space programs,
but no one counts how many sandwiches?]
from Houston Chronicle
A food shortage on the international space station means its two crew
members must eat less until a Russian supply capsule arrives Christmas
Day, NASA officials said Thursday.
Supplies are so low that if the usually reliable Progress spacecraft missed
its delivery, American Leroy Chiao and Russian Salizhan Sharipov would be
ordered back to Earth by mid-January, halfway through their six-month mission.
"This Progress is critical, there is no question about that," NASA space
station program manager Bill Gersteinmaier said Thursday.
http://snipurl.com/b9o8
*Headline News Avoided By Most Of The Major U.S. Media
Elderly and Retired Being Called Up To Active Military In Middle East
Some of you heard about the 55 year old woman called up by the army,
but that has now been eclipsed by at least 100 over the age of 60,
and at least one 70 year old has been called up to Afganistan.
"My first reaction was disbelief," the Florida retiree said.
"It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old."
The Department of Defense would not provide exact figures as
to how many senior citizens had been called up.
REPORT CONCLUDES LINUX HAS FEWER FLAWS [From Newsscan]
A four-year research effort by code-analysis firm Coverity has
concluded that Linux has significantly fewer software bugs in it than most
commercial counterparts. Coverity uncovered 985 flaws in the 5.7 million
lines of code that make up the Linux core operating system, compared with
the more than 5,000 defects typically found in commercial software of
similar size. "Linux is a very good system in terms of bug density," says
Coverity CEO Seth Hallem. Though Coverity's report doesn't contain any
specific data about the frequency of glitches in Microsoft's Windows
operating system, it's likely to add fuel to the debate over which system
-- Linux, Mac OS or Windows -- is most secure. One recent report found that
Red Hat Linux contained fewer critical flaws than Microsoft Windows, while
a Forrester Research study (sponsored by Microsoft) unsurprisingly favored
Microsoft. (CNet News.com 13 Dec 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Security+research+suggests+Linux+has+fewer+flaws/2100-1
002_3-5489804.html>
[Since I used to live in San Francisco, this jumped out at me]
TREMORS ROCK EARTH DEEP BENEATH SAN ANDREAS FAULT
from San Francisco Chronicle
Mysterious tremors deep beneath the San Andreas Fault near the quake-prone
town of Parkfield are shaking the earth's brittle crust, far below the
region where earthquakes normally strike -- and scientists say they can't
understand what's happening or what the motions mean.
Seismic researchers are monitoring the strange vibrations closely. But
whether the faint underground tremors -- termed "chatter" by some
seismologists -- portend an increased likelihood of a major quake in the
area is an unsolved puzzle.
Robert Nadeau, a geophysicist at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory,
has charted more than 110 of the faint vibrations since they were first
detected by the lab's High Resolution Seismic Network in Parkfield three
years ago. What concerns Nadeau and his colleagues is that the epicenter of
the great 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, whose magnitude has been estimated
at 7.8 to 8, was located almost exactly where the deep tremors are now
occurring -- beneath the San Luis Obispo County village of Cholame, some
17 miles south of Parkfield.
http://snipurl.com/b9mz
ESKIMOS SEEK TO RECAST GLOBAL WARMING AS A RIGHTS ISSUE
from The New York Times (Registration Required)
The Eskimos, or Inuit, about 155,000 seal-hunting peoples scattered around
the Arctic, plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights that the United States, by contributing substantially to
global warming, is threatening their existence.
The Inuit plan is part of a broader shift in the debate over human-caused
climate change evident among participants in the 10th round of
international talks taking place in Buenos Aires aimed at averting
dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Inuit leaders said they planned to announce the effort at the climate
meeting today.
http://snipurl.com/bdtn
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
About "Google Print"
"This is the day the world changes."
John Wilkin, University of Michigan
"Within two decades, most of the world's knowledge will be digitised
and available, one hopes for free reading on the internet, just as
there is free reading in libraries today."
Michael A. Keller, Head Librarian, Stanford
Ronald Milne, Acting Head Librarian, Bodleian Library, Oxford,
said that this was as important an event as the Gutenberg's
orginal invention of the printing press. [Does anyone have
the exact quotation. . .I was taking notes from three nearly
simultaneous reports]
[BTW, didn't we hear that a major portion of the Bodleian was
now confortably ensconced deep within a salt mine? So how is
Google going to scan those?]
"Our world is about to change in a big, big way,"
Daniel Greenstein, California Digital Library
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Project Gutenberg will be the first eBook collection
to offer $1,000,000 worth of eBooks at 2005 hardback
retail prices.
Project Gutenberg will be the first eBook collection
to offer 100,000 eBooks.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO HAS RECORD DIOXIN LEVELS
"the concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the
second highest ever recorded in human history," Prof. Abraham Brouwer,
Toxicologist, Free University in Amsterdam
*
We keep hearing annoucements that high school graduates make
$1.42 for each $1 made by high school dropouts.
They never mention that education makes for better people,
or for a better country or a better world. . .just that it
is likely that you will make more money. . . .
"Greed Is Good" seems to still be the watchword. . . .
["Sponsored by the Ad Council and the U.S. Army."]
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