[gweekly] !@!New PT1a Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Dec 21 08:58:34 PST 2005
pt1a2.d05
Final Edition
Weekly_December_19.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, December 19, 2005 PT1*
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971********
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*eBook Milestones*
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***Introduction
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing. Note bene
that PT1 is now being sent as PT1A and PT1B.
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
*Headline News from Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
[I think this is only the first or second time we ever included
ALL the entries from a single edition of Edupage. From here:]
U.S. HOUSE REQUIRES HDTV CONVERSION IN 2009
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation requiring
complete conversion to HDTV broadcasting in early 2009.
The bill included funding to aid consumers with analog TV sets
who watch free TV stations to purchase converter boxes.
Satellite and cable TV consumers would not be affected by the digital switch. The requirements and funding were
part of a larger deficit-cutting bill still to be addressed by the Senate.
A major goal of the digital TV requirement is to gain radio spectrum for
emergency use. [i.e. Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, NSA, etc?]
Yahoo, 19 December 2005
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051219/ap_on_hi_te/congress_digital_tv
NIST SETS DATA SPECS FOR BIOMETRIC ID CARDS
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
has established and published biometric data specifications,
required for federal ID cards slated for implementation in October 2006.
The new specs cover fingerprints and facial image recognition.
Comments on the draft specs will be accepted until January 13, 2006.
[Are they hoping no one will be paying attention over the holidays?]
Federal Computer Week, 16 December 2005
http://www.fcw.com/article91747-12-16-05-Web
MEETING COMPLIANCE LAWS RAISES IT COSTS
According to a recent Gartner study, laws on corporate governance and
compliance, such as the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, force businesses to
spend more on information technology. The report predicts increases in
IT budgets from 10 to 15 percent in 2006, up from roughly 5 percent in
2004. The survey included 326 audit, finance, and IT professionals in
North America and Western Europe. Gartner recommended solutions that
can support multiple regulations across a business to maximize
effectiveness on spending for compliance.
[Businesses are being forced to pay extra so the above listed
agencies can spy on them?]
ZDNet, 15 December 2005
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5996670.html
EXPERT-EDITED ALTERNATIVE TO WIKIPEDIA
Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia, plans to launch a project
called Digital Universe that will take advantage of public input for
its content but rely on acknowledged experts to edit the submissions.
Material will be free, with copyrighted material available to
subscribers for a fee. A number of institutions have already signed up
for the project, including the American Museum of Natural History and
the National Council for Science and the Environment. Sanger has raised
$10 million in start-up funding.
[Is the timing here just a coincidence? More on Wikipedia below.]
The Register, 19 December 2005
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/19/sanger_onlinepedia_with_experts/
GOOGLE BUYS PART OF AOL
Google has agreed to buy a 5 percent stake in America Online (AOL) from
parent company Time Warner for $1 billion cash. The goal is dominance
in the online advertising market. Microsoft competed with Google for
the partnership agreement, which must still be approved by the Time
Warner board. As part of the deal, Google will give AOL ads special
placement on its site, a switch from its ad auction system.
New York Times, 17 December 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/technology/17aol.html
[To here]
STUDY EVALUATES WIKIPEDIA CONTENT
According to a research study published in the journal Nature,
Wikipedia compares favorably with the Encyclopedia Britannica in the
accuracy of its information despite recent criticisms of its content
and methods. The Nature study compared articles from both Web sites on
a wide range of topics, asking field experts to review the accuracy of
the entries. Serious errors (such as misunderstandings of vital
concepts) were evenly distributed between the two encyclopedias, with
four serious errors each. As for errors of fact, omissions, or
misleading text, Wikipedia had 162 such errors and Britannica had 123.
The study is the first to use peer review to compare the accuracy of
the two sources' coverage of science.
Silicon.com, 16 December 2005
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39155109,00.htm
MICHIGAN PONDERS ONLINE REQUIREMENT
High school students in Michigan will be required to take at least one
online course in order to graduate under a proposal before the Michigan
State Board of Education, which is expected to approve it. Mike
Flanagan, the Michigan state superintendent of public instruction,
offered the proposal as a way to help students in the state prepare for
college and for professional lives, which he said increasingly employ
technology. The board is expected to pass the new regulation, which
would make Michigan the first state to require an online course for a
high school diploma. Kathleen N. Straus, president of the board, said,
"We think we'd be on the cutting edge" if they pass the new rule,
which would still require the approval of the state legislature and the
governor. The proposal would allow noncredit online courses, such as
ACT prep classes, to count toward the requirement, but Flanagan said he
hopes students would choose to take for-credit courses.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 December 2005
http://chronicle.com/free/2005/12/2005121301t.htm
COLLEGES JOIN THE RFID BANDWAGON
A number of colleges and universities are launching academic programs
that focus on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID
tools, which use small electronic devices to track physical goods, are
seen by many as the future for management of inventories and supply
chains. MBA students at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana
University are using a model train equipped with tiny transmitters to
learn about and test RFID technology in a way that simulates a conveyor
belt in a factory. As the Kelley School's Ashok Soni said, having a
real conveyor belt just wasn't feasible. Meanwhile, the University of
California at Irvine announced an RFID certificate program that
includes courses such as "Solving Business Problems with Radio
Frequency Identification Devices." Research firm Gartner estimates that
the market for RFID this year will be $504 million, an increase of 39
percent over last year. The company also predicts that RFID spending
will grow to $3 billion annually by the end of the decade.
CNET, 13 December 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-5993692.html
ONLINE EDUCATION BOOMING
Analysts speaking at a conference on the business of higher education
this week argued that the market for online learning, though often
downplayed relative to other topics, is thriving and represents the
future of for-profit education. Online music, for example, receives a
lot of hype in the media, according to one analyst, but the market for
online education is seven times larger than that for online music.
Douglas L. Becker, CEO of Laureate Education Inc., which operates a
network of international universities, said that in many parts of the
world the demand for higher education far outstrips the supply.
Moreover, while for-profit colleges enroll less than 5 percent of all
college students, more than a third of all students taking an online
course are enrolled at a for-profit institution. The conditions are
ripe for online education to lead to significant growth in for-profit
colleges in the coming years, according to analysts.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 December 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/12/2005121305n.htm
QUANTA TO PRODUCE MIT'S $100 LAPTOPS
Computer maker Quanta has been chosen to manufacture the $100 laptops
that are the brainchild of MIT's Nicholas Negroponte and supported by
the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization. Based in Taiwan, Quanta
is the world's largest maker of laptops, building the devices for
companies including Dell and HP. Some believe that supplying the
developing world with inexpensive computer technology will be a boon
for educational and economic development of those nations, and the
notion of an inexpensive laptop is part of that vision. Previous
attempts to build and deploy similar technology have failed, and
detractors argue that the $100 laptop program doesn't stand much of a
chance. Nevertheless, recruiting a major hardware manufacturer signals
the level of support that the project enjoys. Of the announcement,
Negroponte said, "Any previous doubt that a very-low-cost laptop could
be made for education in the developing world has just gone away."
Silicon.com, 14 December 2005
http://hardware.silicon.com/desktops/0,39024645,39155040,00.htm
CSIA GIVES FEDS D+ ON CYBERSECURITY
In a report card released by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance
(CSIA), the federal government received a grade of D+ for
cybersecurity. CISA gave credit to the Department of Homeland Security
for establishing a new position, the assistant secretary for
cybersecurity. Six months after that job was created, however, it
remains unfilled. Paul Kurtz, executive director of CSIA, commented
that "Cybersecurity research is in a crisis." CSIA also launched what
it calls a Digital Confidence Index, a measure of public confidence in
efforts to protect computers and systems. The initial rating for the
index is 58 out of 100. CSIA issued a set of 13 recommendations, called
the National Agenda for Information Security in 2006, designed to
improve the nation's cybersecurity. Among the recommendations are
calls to increase funding for cybersecurity research and to promote
cooperation among federal agencies.
Federal Computer Week, 13 December 2005
http://www.fcw.com/article91710-12-13-05-Web
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Hidden by all the rest, was the news that super-lobbiest Abramoff
is trying to make a deal for a reduced sentence on his many charges
by testifying against his former business and political partners.
Source: Albany Times Union
*
Intelligent Design Is Just Creationism Renamed, says Judge Jones
"We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board
amount to a pretext for the board's real purpose,
which was to promote religion in the public school classroom."
Federal judge, John E Jones III
Appointed by President George W. Bush
In the Dover School Board case, Judge Jones revealed that in 150
instances in the book "Of Pandas and People" the term "intelligent
design" had merely replaced terms such as "creation science" or
"creation" or "creationism" and similar terms in a ploy to get
around the recent major decisions against teaching creationism
in public school science classes.
Judge Jones said, Intelligent Design/Creationism "has not
generated peer-reviewed publications, nor has it been the
subject of testing and research."
Source
The Telegraph, UK
PBS
*DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
"Any time you hear the United States government talking
about wiretap, a wiretap requires a a court order."
"Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about
chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court
order before we do so," he added.
President George W. Bush
April 20, 2004, Buffalo, NY
"You see, what that meant is if you got a wiretap by court order,
and by the way, everything you hear about requires court order,
requires there to be permission from a FISA court, for example,"
President George W. Bush
Hershey, Pennsylvania
"A couple of things that are very important for you to understand
about the Patriot Act. First of all, any action that takes place
by law enforcement requires a court order.
"In other words, the government can't move on wiretaps or roving
wiretaps without getting a court order," he said. "What the Patriot
Act said, is let's give our law enforcement the tools necessary,
without abridging the Constitution of the United States, the tools
necessary to defend America."
President George W. Bush
July 14, 2004
Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin
Source: [all 12/20/05 and 12/21/05]
Los Angeles Times "Cheney Defends Domestic Spying"
Gulf Times, Qatar "For Years, Bush Said Court Orders Required For Spying
Baltimore Sun "Cheney Supports Wiretap Authority"
New York Newsday "Cheney Defends Domestic Spying"
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette "Police-State Methods No Answer To Terror"
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Oil-drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)
will become as much an albatross around Senator Ted Stevens neck
as his infamous "bridge to nowhere."
*
Hesitating to even quote any of those mentioning impeachment.
*STRANGE QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Watergate and a lot of the things around Watergate and Vietnam, both
during the 1970s, served, I think, to erode the authority I think the
president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area."
VP Dick Cheney, to reporters traveling on Air Force Two with him.
Cheney added that "the vast majority" approve of the recently revealed
surveillance without court orders. [Echoing Nixon's "Silent Majority."]
"And so if there's a backlash pending, I think the backlash is going
to be against those who are suggesting somehow we shouldn't take these
steps in order to defend the country."
Source:
Los Angeles Times
White House Press Pool
*
A bipartisan letter from five Senators stated for the record:
"At no time, to our knowledge, did any administration representative
ask the Congress to consider amending existing law to permit
electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists without a warrant,"
[Two Republicans, Three Democrats]
[Similar letters are being made available from other members of Congress,
some still waiting for declassification, written in 2002 when some dozen
members were advised of the situation. Some say the fact that they kept
silent, as requested, was a form of tacit approval, a charge also levied
at the New York Times, who broke the story a few days ago, after knowing
about it for a year. Condensed from multiple sources, apologies that my
note taking was going to fast to get everything.]
*
"Why is it that President Bush went in front of the American people
and said that a wiretap 'requires a court order' after having approved
a wiretap program without a court order two years earlier?"
Howard Dean
*
"When the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was created in 1978,
one of the things that the Attorney General at the time, Griffin Bell,
testified before the intelligence committee, and he said that the current
bill recognizes no inherent power of the President to conduct
electronic surveillance."
He said, 'This bill specifically states that the procedures in the bill
are the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance may be conducted.'
Sources:
James Bamford
Christian Science Monitor
*
"Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 shall be the
exclusive means by which electronic surveillance ... may be
conducted." [FISA; 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(f)]
Source:
Bush's Use of NSA Spying and the Law
Institute for Public Accuracy (press release), DC - Dec 19, 2005
*
In addition, the FBI has been reported to be spying on various groups
supporting animal rights and other such causes, as per FBI documents
obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act.
These include:
A vegan community project [vegetarians]
A Catholic workers group
PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals]
However, the FBI officially denies that "Just being referenced in an
FBI file is not tantamount to being the subject of an investigation,"
according to FBI spokesman John Miller.
[However, you might notice that Mr. Miller did NOT deny that these
people were under FBI investigation.]
"The Justice Department does not comment on or confirm the existence
of criminal investigations. All matters referred to the department
by the intelligence agencies for purposes of further investigation
are taken seriously and thoroughly reviewed."
Brian Roehrkasse, Justice Dept. spokesman.
"It goes back to the dark days of Nixon and the enemies list."
Jeff Kerr, PETA General Counsel
Source:
FBI
ACLU
United Press International
The Washington Post
Also see: Joint Terrorism Task Forces
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
The WTA strike [transit strike] in New York City is costing the
union $1 million per day in fines, and costing New York City
$400-$660 million is lost business.
Source:
International Herald Tribune
Bloomberg
Voice of America
*
Google is trying to buy 5% of AOL.
*
Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries.
"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same,
it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South America
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer [I think this is now much greater]
1 would be 79 years old or more.
Of those born today, the life expectancy is only 63 years,
but no country any longer issues copyrights that are sure
to expire within that 63 year period.
I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date,
as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer
then there would be only 60 million people in the world who
owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States
households have computers, out of over 100 million households.
Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in
the United States.
I just called our local reference librarian and got the number
of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at:
111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports.
If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households
is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million,
and that's counting just one computer per household, and not
counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc.
I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate
given above, and would like some help researching these and other
such figures, if anyone is interested.
BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic
that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old.
This means that basically 90% of the world's population would
never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations
offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US
population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich
live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer
than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is
distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they
can receive more per year, but because they will live more years
to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never
receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in.
*
POEM OF THE WEEK
This Room
This room contains us all.
The walls stretch out to encompass
the angry me, the wicked me,
the mother & child me, the melancholic me,
the sanctified self of the loving me.
Design dating back when all things were just beginning,
and the beginning had already begun.
We are stuck here. Pinned into place onto this board.
Past days present. Present days all here. Future hopes
drawn like tattoos on the stretching arms of the walls.
One finds it great to have flexible views.
Feelings live in separate compartments,
drawn in through secret passageways of senses.
Counting rains and rainbows, I found them all,
handily located at the trysting place between heart and soul.
Copyright 2005 by Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart
Please send comments to: simona_s75 AT yahoo.com & hart AT pobox.com
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