[gweekly] PT1 Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Feb 9 10:05:40 PST 2005
GWeekly_February_09.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, February 09, 2005 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
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*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
3 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
114 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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*eBook Milestones
15,365 eBooks As Of Today!!!
12,323 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 409 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~53.5% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~7% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
4,635 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged 457+ eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!!
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 357 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 82 eBooks Per Week This Year
117 This Week
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~32 months, from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000
*
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 01.25 months of this year, we produced 409 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to February 1996 to produce our first 409 eBooks!
That's 5 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 Years!
117 New eBooks This Week
75 New eBooks Last Week
117 New eBooks This Month [Feb]
357 Average Per Month in 2005
336 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
409 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
12323 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 49.25 Months!
15,365 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
11,320 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,045 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
413 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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Please note the new format for this week's report.
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*PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since completing its first eBook in March 2001, the Distributed
Proofreaders team has now contributed 6,085 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
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Last week's looked like this:
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on Mar 13th, 2001,
the Distributed Proofreaders team has now produced its 6,390th
eBook (#14867). Of these are 5,992 unique, brand-new titles.
Projects completed during the past year:
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 - 287
Jan 2005 - 248
Feb 2005 - 11 (as of 2 Feb)
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
marked with <<< below. We need people to surf
the Internet Archive sites, etc., to keep us up
to date on what is available.
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings
of 18 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
Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files
Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<<
Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files
Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files
Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files
Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files
PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change
Renaisscance Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files
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=========~137,142 Total Files=====
Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 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
~45,714 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~34,286 Unique eBooks
***
Today Is Day #35 of 2005
This Completes Week #5 and Month #01.25
329 Days/47 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
4,635 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
82 Weekly Average in 2005
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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Statistical Review
In the 5 weeks of this year, we have produced 409 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1996 to produce our FIRST 409 eBooks!!!
That's 5 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #409
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
Feb 1996 Frivolous Cupid, by Anthony Hope [Hawkins] [frcupxxx.xxx] 428
Feb 1996 The Great War Syndicate, by Frank Stockton [FS#2] [wsyndxxx.xxx] 427
Feb 1996 Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson[#18][tlfnsxxx.xxx] 426
Feb 1996 Familiar Studies of Men & Books, by Stevenson[#17][fsombxxx.xxx] 425
Feb 1996 General Booth, Other Poems, by Vachel Lindsay [#2][gnbthxxx.xxx] 424
Feb 1996 Round The Red Lamp, By Arthur Conan Doyle[Doyle#8][rrlmpxxx.xxx] 423
Feb 1996 The Romany Rye, by George Borrow [Borrow #2] [trryexxx.xxx] 422
Feb 1996 Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson [RLS #17] [kdnpdxxx.xxx] 421
Feb 1996 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, by L. Frank Baum[#4][dorozxxx.xxx] 420
Feb 1996 The Magic of Oz, by L. Frank Baum [L Frank Baum#3][magozxxx.xxx] 419
Feb 1996 A Treatise on Good Works, by Dr. Martin Luther[#4][gworkxxx.xxx] 418
Feb 1996 The Hymns and Small Cathechism of Martin Luther [thomlxxx.xxx] 417
Feb 1996 Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson [wnbrgxxx.xxx] 416
Jan 1996 The Bible in Spain, by George Borrow [Borrow #1] [tbispxxx.xxx] 415
Jan 1996 Pageant of Summer, by Richard Jefferies [psumrxxx.xxx] 414
Jan 1996 Ballads, by Robert Louis Stevenson [Stevenson #16][rlsbaxxx.xxx] 413
Jan 1996 John Jacob Astor, by Elbert Hubbard [Homes Series][jastrxxx.xxx] 412
Jan 1996 The King's Jackal, by Richard Harding Davis [#8] [kjackxxx.xxx] 411
Jan 1996 Hell Fer Sartain & Other Stories by John Fox, Jr. [hfersxxx.xxx] 410
Jan 1996 Religious and Moral Poems, by Phillis Wheatley [whtlyxxx.xxx] 409
Jan 1996 The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. Du Bois [soulbxxx.xxx] 408
Jan 1996 The Reporter Who Made Himself King, by Davis[#7] [rkingxxx.xxx] 407
Jan 1996 Appreciations of Richard Harding Davis [Davis#6] [aprhdxxx.xxx] 406
Jan 1996 Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis[5][alrhdxxx.xxx] 405
Jan 1996 Industrial Biography, by Samuel Smiles [Smiles#1] [inbioxxx.xxx] 404
Jan 1996 Soldiers of Fortune by Richard Harding Davis[RHD4][soldfxxx.xxx] 403
Jan 1996 Penrod, by Booth Tarkington [Tarkington #2] [pnrodxxx.xxx] 402
Jan 1996 Blix, by Frank Norris [#4 in Frank Norris series] [blixnxxx.xxx] 401
Jan 1996 Helen of Troy, by Sara Teasdale [helenxxx.xxx] 400
Jan 1996 Cast Upon the Breakers, by Horatio Alger[Alger#3] [cubrkxxx.xxx] 399
Jan 1996 1st Book of Adam and Eve, Rutherford Platt [1adamxxx.xxx] 398
Jan 1996 Four Poems by John Milton [Milton #3] [miltpxxx.xxx] 397
Jan 1996 The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton [ladytxxx.xxx] 396
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 15,365 eBooks online as of February 09, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$1.02 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,417,750 x 15,365 x $1.02 = $1+ trillion
With 15,365 eBooks online as of February 09, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.65 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.89 when we had 11,320 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 15,365 eBooks in 33 Years and 07.25 Months We Averaged
~457 Per Year
38.1 Per Month
1.25 Per Day
At 409 eBooks Done In The 35 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
11.7 Per Day
82 Per Week
357 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 5th was
the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 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]
GREECE BANS E-MAIL SNOOPING
Greece's personal data watchdog has ordered companies not to violate
employee privacy by snooping into their private e-mail. The independent Data
Protection Authority (DPA), whose decisions are binding, has barred firms
from collecting and processing information on workers' communications,
including e-mail. The decision did not include fines. The authority acted on
a complaint by the workers' union of an unnamed company, alleging the
company remote-controlled employees' computers through virtual network
control, specialized software that transmits the screen and keyboard and
mouse clicks between two computers on a network. (The Australian 2 Feb 2005)
<http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,12124895%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5
E,00.html> By J Lamp Deakin U.
WHY BUY WHEN YOU CAN RENT?
Until recently, subscribers to music download services were restricted
in their ability to transfer songs they purchased to portable players,
while Apple has touted the portability of its iTunes service, aimed
at owners of its iPod portable music player. But Napster is hoping to
change all that with its Napster To Go service, which it's promoting in a
SuperBowl ad urging music fans to compare the costs of spending $10,000
to buy and transfer 10,000 songs to an iPod, compared with the $15 per
month fee to carry songs from a catalog of more than a million tracks on
Napster-compatible players. The Napster service will use Microsoft's new
Janus digital rights management software, and manufacturers like Samsung,
iRiver, Gateway and Creative are cranking up production of Janus-compatible
devices ranging in price from about $250 to $500. An IDC analyst predicts the
price eventually will fall below $100, creating tougher competition for Apple.
(Reuters 3 Feb 2005)
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=7521346>
[More. . .]
THAT MUSIC IN THE AIR HAS BECOME A RENT-OR-BUY DECISION
The business model made popular by Apple's iTunes Music Store and its
iPod portable player -- which allows music fans to buy songs by the track
-- is being severely tested not only by new subscription services that treat
music as a pay-as-you-listen proposition, but by Microsoft's new
copy-protection software that allows subscribers to move their rented tracks
from their PCs to portable music players. How does this work? By putting a
timer on the tracks loaded on the player, and automatically checking whether
a user's subscription is still current. Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media
says, "This is potentially the first serious challenge that the iPod is
going to face. What these devices are going to be able to do is attack iPod
where it's weak." But of course renting and buying can live together in peace:
Jupiter Research's Michael Gartenberg says, "There's going to have to be
some education in the marketplace. There's some stuff that consumers watch
over the air and on cable but don't actually own and some DVDs consumers
actually go out and buy. There's going to be some coexistence here as well."
(AP/San Jose Mercury News 3 Feb 2005)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10804837.htm>
WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHAT JOURNALISM IS?
[Talk about reducing a country wide argument to an extreme: Mom and Son]
A California court will soon decide whether bloggers have the same
legal protections as journalists under "shield" laws that protect reporters
from revealing their sources. Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kurt
Opsahl, who represents two bloggers targeted by Apple for leaking
information about new company products, maintains that if the bloggers are
forced to give up their sources "the public will lose out on a vital outlet
for independent news, analysis, and commentary." An opposing view is offered
by University of Iowa law professor Randall Bezanson, who says that simply
expressing opinions to a tiny audience isn't journalism -- because if it
were "then I'm a journalist when I write a letter to my mother reporting on
what I'm doing. I don't think the free-press clause [of the U.S. Constitution]
was intended to extend its protections to letters to mothers from sons."
(USA Today 2 Feb 2005)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2005-02-02-about-a-blog_x.htm>
[and. . .]
YOUR LYING EYES IN THE PHOTOSHOP AGE
[Who remembers the doctored FBI photograph of the March on Washington
that spelled the end of the Viet Nam War? It turned out they took the
picture after the march was over, but didn't realize the Washington
Monument was, in fact, a HUGE sundial, and that it was obvious to any
observer that the photograph had been taken hour after the march ended.
Of course, we wouldn't have that problem today, would we?]
Have the ethics of photojournalism been changed in some way by such
software as Adobe Photoshop, which allows easy manipulation of digital
photos? The National Press Photographers Association says it's wrong to
alter the content of a photograph "in any way that deceives the public," and
the director of photography at the Los Angeles Times director of photography
says, "If our readers can't count on honesty from us, I don't know what we
have left." Dartmouth computer science professor Hany Farid is working to
solve the problem of dishonest photographs by developing computer algorithms
that can detect when an image has been altered. But Farid says, "It's a bit
of an arms race. It's tamper and tamper protection, and we can already
predict who's going to win. We simply make it harder" for the average person
with the average amount of skill to get away with photographic deceptions.
(CSM/USA Today 2 Feb 2005)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/ethics/2005-02-02-photos-and-t
he-truth_x.htm>
SCHOOL DAYS: WHAT EXACTLY IS GOING ON?
It is increasing commonplace now for teachers and schools to use the
Internet to distribute grades, pending assignments, written comments, class
participation, and disciplinary actions -- and to allow parents to check on
both the academic progress and general activities of their children. One
parent says, "My sixth grader has not bothered to tell me he is failing math
for the first time in his life. I was just perusing [the school's Web site]
and he's got one, two, three, four, five zeros. I have immediately put a
call in to that teacher." The parent adds: "If everybody would use it and
use it more, we could be more involved in our children's education." Yet
Pearson Education, one of the vendors for systems to manage student
information, estimates that only a quarter of its 16,000 school districts
buy the optional parental-access package. Among the reasons schools are
reluctant to use it is that teachers just don't want to let parents quibble
with them about grades. Yet without such systems some parents won't even
know that there's anything to quibble over, because, in the words of another
parent, "Kids don't always bring the bad stuff home." (AP 2 Feb 2005)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050202/D8803G1O0.html>
SCHOOL NEWS: FIRST AMENDMENT? WHAT FIRST AMENDMENT?
A University of Connecticut survey of more than 100,000 high school
students has found that educators are failing to give high school students
an appreciation of the First Amendment9s guarantees of free speech and a
free press. Commissioned by the Knight Foundation, the $1 million, two-year
study found that nearly three-fourths of high school students either do not
know how they feel about the First Amendment or admit they take it for
granted; seventy-five percent erroneously think flag burning is illegal;
half believe the government can censor the Internet; and more than a third
think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees. Knight
Foundation chief executive Hodding Carter III says, 3These results are not
only disturbing; they are dangerous. Ignorance about the basics of this free
society is a danger to our nation9s future.2 (Knight Foundation 31 Jan 2005)
<http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=news_at_knight/releases/2005/200
5_01_31_firstamend.html>
FLAT-PANEL SHAKEUP
Fierce competition from Korean manufacturers is driving down prices
of flat panel displays and eroding profits for many of the companies that
make them. With LCD screen prices down as much as 40% in the last year,
Fujitsu announced it's selling its LCD operation to Sharp for an
undisclosed amount. The divestiture comes on the heels of an announcement
last week that Fujitsu will sell back to Hitachi a large piece of the 50%
stake it has in the companies' plasma display joint venture. "Fujitsu's
been planning an exit strategy for flat panels for some time and it's
finally come to fruition," says an analyst for UFJ Tsubasa Securities in
Tokyo. Meanwhile, Hitachi and Matsushita are joining forces to develop,
manufacture and market plasma displays, a market they hope will prove more
lucrative than LCDs. Matsushita is the world's third-largest maker of
plasma displays after Samsung and LG Electronics. Hitachi will rank No. 4
once it's completed its deal with Fujitsu. (New York Times 8 Feb 2005)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/technology/08flat.html>
HOLOGRAPHIC DISKS WILL STORE HUNDREDS OF MOVIES
With the competition between the next-generation Blu-ray and HD DVD
technologies still red-hot, technology firms are seeking a cooler solution
for the third-generation DVD. Six leading companies, including Sony, Fuji
Photo, CMC Magnetics and Optware, have formed the Holographic Versatile
Disc (HVD) Alliance in the hope of building a consensus early. The Alliance
says consumers conceivably could store a terabyte of data -- as much as 200
standard DVDs -- on a single HVD disc, and transfer data at over one
gigabit per second, or 40 times faster than a DVD.
(WebIndia123.com 7 Feb 2005)
<http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=64927&cat=Science>
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>From Edupage
DOES GOOGLE FACE COPYRIGHT TROUBLES?
Google's recently announced plans to scan millions of volumes in
several libraries has some wondering if the project is at risk of
running into copyright limitations. Google will scan books that are in
the public domain and make those texts available online; the company
will also scan copyrighted books and offer short excerpts of a few
lines each. Some publishing groups argued that putting even small
pieces online will violate copyright and that the company should seek
explicit permission from copyright owners. Critics also expressed
reservations about copyright determinations for books that might, for
example, be in the public domain in one country but not in another.
Sally C.L. Morris, chief executive of the Association of Learned and
Professional Society Publishers, said that although the sheer number of
academic publishers represents a powerful disincentive to obtaining
permissions from all of them, "that doesn't mean there's not a legal
requirement to do it." For its part, Google insists that its actions
are acceptable. Google spokesperson Steve Langdon said, "In every case,
Google's presentation of the works to the public will keep authors and
publishers in mind and be well within the bounds of copyright law."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 February 2005 (sub. req'd)
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Apparently Iraqi government forces have been trying to
buy ballot boxes filled with votes they want to change.
*
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. . .OR RATHER 71.6 DAYS !!!
Ellen MacArthur wrote her way into several history book
records this week as she completed her 26,000 mile non-
stop solo sail around the world. This new world record
of hers of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, 33 seconds is
over an entire day faster than the previous record from
Francis Joyon of France.
Praise for her efforts has been coming in worldwide and
also from Mr. Joyon, himself, along with Prime Minister
Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac. Ellen,
who will now be Dame Ellen, is the youngest person ever
to be awarded Britain's highest honor at the ripest old
age of 28.
However, it would appear this may be just the beginning
for England's newest superstar. She said she could see
beating that record by about a week with more favorable
weather, as there were severe problems this time. Some
other world records are already in her sights including
the old clipper ship records from Shanghai to London at
67 days, circumnavigating the British Isles, and a west
to east Atlantic crossing.
These trips are particular grueling as sleep only comes
in 15-30 minute catnaps, and there are always emergency
repairs, this time requiring her climb the mast to make
repairs the the mainsail. Being bruised and battered a
world away from home out in the middle of nowhere is an
essential portion of most such voyages.
The BBC World News devoted just over 1/3 of their story
segments to covering the finish of this record breaking
story, but United States networks seemed to ignore this
story completely.
The media seems to be quite different these days from a
standpoint of biased reporting than it was in a variety
of previous incarnations during the 1900's and 1800's.
And, of course, let's not forget just how great stories
such as this one fly in the face of Harvard's President
only a week after he left the news with egg on his face
after commenting about women not being suited for study
or careers in the areas of science and mathematics that
are required to accomplish such a record breaking feat.
If you don't think applying science and math to sailing
around the world requires much study, then you have not
actually tried it, or else you are a natural math whiz.
We tend to forget that the rigors of navigation, even a
modern computer-aided navigation, are still well beyond
the capabilities of the normal math and science student
or professor, not to mention being able to calcuate the
winds, currents, location, weather reports, maps, reefs
and all the other naval navigation requirements.
This feat is truly one of the most difficult we hear on
the news as well as one of those requiring the greatest
possible endurance of mind and body working together.
Whether that mind and body are female or male. . . .
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
I hope you saw The Daily Show's segment on the largest cache of
chemical weapons in the world. It's in a place called Al Abama.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
The results of the Iraqi elections will be held up for so long
that no one will care who was elected, or how many voted. . .
the fact that elections were held at all will called victory.
Of course, that victory will not encourage anyone to go home.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
We don't usually associate smog advisories with the
middle of winter, but there is just such an "air quality
alert" [to put it in NewSpeak] for a handful of counties
surrounding Terra Haute, Indiana, and apparently a few
more in northern Indiana. [Terra Haute is south of
Indianapolis, not far from Illinois.]
!!! Well, I spoke a little too soon, only a day after
sending out this report we were under a "smog alert"
as they called it before the Political Correction
Officers insisted on a new NewSpeak Dictionary that
doesn't include "smog alert." Yes, right here in
my Central Illinois hometown surrounded by cornfields
we are having our own smog alert, and people are being
warned not to go outside if they are old or have any
medical concerns about breathing.
Apparently lots of particles are in the atmosphere
from cars, factories, furnaces and the like; first
time we've had one of these new-fangled alerts, at
least according to the news.
*
"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
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 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.
***
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