[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Jun 29 09:53:32 PDT 2005
Weekly_June_29.txt
**The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 29, 2005 PT1**
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
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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.]
41 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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*eBook Milestones
16,550 eBooks As Of Today!!!
13,498 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 1604 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~65% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~31% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
3,450 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~487 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 277 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 64 eBooks Per Week This Year
42 This Week
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 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
*
***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,
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[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
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***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
*
Darwin!!!
Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 05.80 months of this year, we produced 1604 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1999 to produce our first 1604 eBooks!
That's 25 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 Years!
42 New eBooks This Week
45 New eBooks Last Week
197 New eBooks This Month [Jun]
~281 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
1604 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13498 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 53.80 Months!
About 250 books per month
16,560 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,106 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,454 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
459 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
marked with <<< below.
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
***
Please also note that over 23,000 eBooks are listed via
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In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar
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You can try a new IPL service at:
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It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which
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Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.
***
Today Is Day #175 of 2005
This Completes Week #25 and Month #05.80 [364 days this year]
189 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,440 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
64 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 25 weeks of this year, we have produced 1604 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 1/99 to produce our FIRST 1604 eBooks!!!
That's 25 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1407
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
[Note: books without month and year entries have been reposted]
Jan 1999 Cratylus, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #10][crtlsxxx.xxx] 1616
Jan 1999 Old English Libraries, by Ernest A. Savage [nglbsxxx.xxx] 1615
Jan 1999 The Golden Fleece, by Julian Hawthorne [gldflxxx.xxx] 1614
Jan 1999 Count Bunker, by J. Storer Clousten [cbnkrxxx.xxx] 1613
Jan 1999 Poems By a Little Girl, by Hilda Conkling [pbalgxxx.xxx] 1612
Jan 1999 Seventeen, by Booth Tarkington [B. Tarkington #7][svntnxxx.xxx] 1611
Jan 1999 The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, O.T. Part 2 [2drvbxxx.xxx] 1610
Jan 1999 The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, O.T. Part 1 [1drvbxxx.xxx] 1609
Jan 1999 Camille [La Dame aux Camilias], by A. Dumas, fils [cmllexxx.xxx] 1608
Jan 1999 A Journey in Other Worlds, by J. J. Astor [ajiowxxx.xxx] 1607
Jan 1999 Kenilworth, by Walter Scott [Walter Scott #6][knlwtxxx.xxx] 1606
Jan 1999 The Crock of Gold, by James Stephens [crkgdxxx.xxx] 1605
Jan 1999 The Ebb-Tide by R.L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne[#3][ebtidxxx.xxx] 1604
Jan 1999 The Blue Flower, by Henry van Dyke [van Dyke #5][blflrxxx.xxx] 1603
Jan 1999 Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed, by Edna Ferber [dwnhrxxx.xxx] 1602
Jan 1999 The Breaking Point, by Mary Roberts Rinehart [#6][brkptxxx.xxx] 1601
Jan 1999 Symposium, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #9][sympoxxx.xxx] 1600
Jan 1999 Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, et. al. [cndrlxxx.xxx] 1599
Jan 1999 Euthydemus, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #8][uthydxxx.xxx] 1598
Jan 1999 [Hans Christian] Andersen's Fairy Tales [HCA #1+][hcaftxxx.xxx] 1597
Contents:
The Red Shoes
The Naughty Boy
The Dream of Little Tuk
The Little Match Girl
The Shadow
The False Collar
The Story of a Mother
The Happy Family
The Old House
The Bell
The Elderbush
The Leap-Frog
The Snow Queen
The Fir Tree
The Real Princess
The Swineherd
The Emperor's New Clothes
Jan 1999 Smoke Bellew, by Jack London [Jack London #50][smkblxxx.xxx] 1596
Jan 1999 Whirligigs, by O. Henry [?whrlxxx.xxx] 1595
(Previous 10th edition available in:) [whrlgxxx.xxx]
Jan 1999 Essays in Little, by Andrew Lang [Andrew Lang #11][eslttxxx.xxx] 1594
Jan 1999 How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers, by Wood [httbfxxx.zip] 1593
Jan 1999 Study of the King James Bible, Cleland Boyd McAfee[sokjvxxx.xxx] 1592
Jan 1999 Protagoras, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #7][prtgsxxx.xxx] 1591
The Amazing Interlude, by Mary Roberts Rinehart 1590
[Illus.: Troy Kinney and Margaret West Kinney]
Jan 1999 Tamburlaine the Great PT 2, by Christopher Marlowe[tmbn2xxx.xxx] 1589
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 16,560 eBooks online as of June 29, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.94 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,507,911 x 16,560 x $.94 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,560 eBooks online as of June 29, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.60 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.76 when we had 13,106 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,570 eBooks in 33 Years and 11.80 Months We Averaged
~487 Per Year
40.6 Per Month
1.33 Per Day
At 1604 eBooks Done In The 175 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
9 Per Day
64 Per Week
277 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 Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
SUN BROADENS OPEN SOURCE RELEASES
Just weeks after Sun Microsystems published the source code for its
Solaris operating system as an open source application, the company
announced it would also release the source code of its Java application
server software. Offering the two technologies as open source tools is
part of Sun's efforts to rebuild momentum and market share lost in the
collapse of the dot-com economy, which has hurt Sun more than
competitors including IBM, HP, and Dell. The Java language can be used
to develop applications that run on a variety of computers and other
electronic devices, such as cell phones. By moving the Java software to
open source, Sun hopes to broaden the number of developers working with
Java (already estimated at 4.5 million) and give the company a stronger
foothold in various markets. According to John Loiacono, head of Sun's
software group, making the source code for the Java application server
software available will help Sun sell "services, systems, storage, and
design services" to greater numbers of customers.
Reuters, 27 June 2005
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8897847
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT TO CREATE VAST STUDENT DATABASE
Officials at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have proposed the
creation of a database containing information on virtually every
college student in the country, as well as many high school students.
Intended as a tool to aid recruitment efforts, the database would
include names, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth
dates, ethnicities, grade point averages, and other data. The DoD's
database bears similarities to another database proposed by the
Department of Education. That database would track individual students
through their college careers, providing a clearer picture of
graduation rates than current records, which track only aggregate rates
from institutions. The Education Department's proposed database has
drawn criticism from privacy advocates, who see it as a potential risk
to privacy. The DoD proposal has similarly elicited complaints from
groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
According to EPIC, the database would be a "bad idea," putting tools of
direct marketers in the hands of government officials but without
affording consumers the same protections from government that they
enjoy from marketers.
Inside Higher Ed, 23 June 2005
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/23/database
MICHIGAN SHARES GOOGLE CONTRACT
[We should be aware that the contract with the New York Public Library
never included copyrighted works, but only their public domain books.]
In an effort to address concerns that have arisen over Google's
project to digitize vast numbers of books from several libraries, the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has made its contract with Google
available online. Google has entered into agreements with libraries at
Michigan, as well as Stanford University, Harvard University, the
University of Oxford, and the New York Public Library, to scan most or
all of their books, including those still protected by copyright. Books
in the public domain will be made available on the Web; for those under
copyright, only short excerpts will be online. Critics have contended
that simply making digital copies of copyrighted books is a violation
of copyright protections. The contract states that if either party
becomes aware of copyright infringement, it will be quickly addressed.
The contract also indicates that, aside from compensation for costs of
transporting books, the university will receive no money for its
participation in the project. John P. Wilkin, associate university
librarian at Michigan, said he hopes that by making the university's
contract publicly available, critics will see that there is nothing
sneaky going on between Google and the library.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 June 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/06/2005062001t.htm
ALA SAYS NEARLY ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES OFFER FREE INTERNET ACCESS
[I think there is an error in the first mention of 21 percent.
Perhaps the 1994 date should have been 1984. Sent inquiry]
A study released this week by the American Library Association (ALA)
indicates that 98.9 percent of libraries in the United States offer
free Internet access, up from 95 percent in 2002 and just 21 percent in
1994. In addition, the study found that 18 percent of libraries offer
wireless access, with another 21 percent expecting to offer it within a
year. Rates of access, as well as bandwidth and the likelihood of
wireless access, were higher in urban than in rural parts of the
country. Nearly 40 percent of libraries use Web filters to prevent
minors from accessing adult content on library computers. Carol
Brey-Casiano, president of the ALA, commented that the availability of
Internet-connected computers at libraries could be one reason the
number of annual library visits has risen from about 500 million in the
early 1990s to 1.2 billion today.
New York Times, 24 June 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/national/24library.html
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Zinmbabwe Passes Human Rights Bill Overshadowing US Rights
Yes, people in Zimbabwe now have rights even Americans don't!
They can assemble for protest marches without getting a permit!
Even though the United States Consitution guarantees people the
"right to assemble," and for "redress of grievances," the rights
were curtailed by the Nixon administration and never returned.
Of course, this isn't the only such example these days:
The UN wanted to send election monitors to the United States,
but the Bush II adminstration refused, they were already winning.
Amnesty International rates the United States as one of the most
problematic areas in the world in terms of human rights, torture
and other issues.
*
Eminent Domain, Paying Increases Taxes As Bribery Is
Ruled As Legal by the United States Supreme Court
Yes, this subject has been covered, but the subject of
taking the land for public use has NOT been covered as
having been converted to taking land for private use.
It's one thing to take someone's property against their will
to create highways, railroad, public water plants, etc.
It's quite another to take someone's property against their will
to build a luxury high rise, a McDonald's, a Disneyland, a mall,
or any other privately owned plainly commercial enterprise.
What only a few commentators have addressed is the fact that the
case is fundamentally a case legalizing the bribery of cities by
stating that the new owners will pay higher taxes than old ones.
What USED to be a bidding war between cities to GIVE TAX BREAKS
to corporations to get them to come to town, now, as companies
have become more powerful than cities, the companies now offer
TAX INCENTIVES to the cities as a bribe to encourage the cities
to give them access to land already owned my private citizens,
no matter how long they have owned the property.
Another fact left out of current reporting is that the practice
of using eminent domain for corporate projects did not start in
Connecticut or Indiana, but was going strong in Ohio beforehand.
*
Turkey As An EU Member: It's About The Money, All Over Again
Again the commercial factor has been left out of all reporting,
and they expect you not to notice that Turkey is the gateway to
India and China as a trading route and thus bringing Turkey into
the EU would be highly profitable merely in terms of an enhanced
trade opportunity with these two giant new economies.
In addition, Turkey has one of the largest standing armies,
which will give the EU much more power to enforce its will.
*
Nike Is Falling Apart, It's Still About the Money
Remember when Michael Jordan was paid more by Nike than ALL
the workers who made ALL the Nike shoes?
Perhaps it is turning out that you really can't build solid
businesses on these kinds of practices.
*
Another Supreme Court Ruling Against Human Rights
The Supreme Court also ruled that the police could not be sued
for failure to enforce court restraining orders, even when
this results in the death of the people supposedly protected
by such restraining orders.
*
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
Yet More Rights Rescinded by the United States Supreme Court
The case of the reporters involved in the story about Valerie
Plame, undercover agent for the CIA, whose cover was blown in
apparent retaliation against her husband by the Bush White House,
is now the stage for the undoing of confidentiality of the press
by the Supreme Court.
Two years after the event, even after the unprecedented naming
of a special prosecutor to find the person who leaked her name,
there has been no one brought to trial for this offense.
Even Robert Novak, whose article sparked the entire controversy,
as a result of Ms. Plame's name being leaked to him, is somehow
free of these legal entaglements, but Matthew Cooper of Time and
Judith Miller of The New York Times are instead being threatened
with jail if THEY don't tell who leaked the information, even if
Ms. Miller never wrote about it.
Somehow Novak, the direct user of the leaked information is now
off the hook, but others are being hooked in his place, and the
new Supreme Court decision has placed the entire free press of
the United States in jeopardy to protect this effort to place
blame on others than Robert Novak, the originator of the story.
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
I'm guessing the above stories are enough doublespeak for a week.
Especially when you consider that this kind of threat was not used
on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post when they
broke the Watergate stories and refused to name "Deep Throat."
If the Nixon administration didn't try this strategy with Woodstein,
then why is the Bush II White House doing this to Cooper and Miller?
However, there is still more doublespeak that should be mentioned:
The Republicans are saying public media, PBS and NPR, are too political.
In a totally unrelated story:
Patricia S. Harrison, former chair of the Republican party, was slated
as the new head of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, overseer of
funding for both PBS and NPR [The Public Broadcasting System and National
Public Radio]. Ms. Harrison apparently has no experience in the area of
public broadcasting whatsoever.
"This is a fatal blow to the historic political neutrality of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting," said Senator Frank Lautenberg.
The current head, also a Republican, has been reported as being
too soft on retaliation against people such as Bill Moyers, who,
a Conservative himself, once worked for President Lyndon Johnson,
who, although a Democrat, was such a Conservative that many recall
him as more of a Republican. Of course, Bill Moyers no longer has
his NOW program on PBS, but that part is being ignored as he is
pillaged just as if he were still there.
*
And lastly, we heard Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice say:
"The fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty."
[So why no UN election monitors allowed into United States elections?]
"The day is coming when the promise of a fully free and democratic
world, once thought impossible, will also seem inevitable."
"When we talk about democracy, though, we are referring to governments
that protect certain basic rights for all their citizens -- among these,
the right to speak freely. The right to associate. The right to worship
as you wish. The freedom to educate your children -- boys and girls.
And freedom from the midnight knock of the secret police."
[Not to mention those who were excommuniated for voting against Bush.]
"The day must come when the rule of law replaces emergency decrees."
[Not to mention "The War Against Terror."]
"Opposition groups must be free to assemble, and to participate,
and to speak to the media."
[Not to mention those who were invited to various Bush events,
but were arrested and removed when they wore anti-Bush T-shirts,
even though they had official invitations.]
"They must accept the rule of law, they must reject violence,
they must respect the standards of free elections. . . ."
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of The New York Times
will go to jail rather than divulge their sources, and Time and
the New York Times will stand behind them, and so will most of
the world press corps.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
50 million Americans live in various kinds "gated communites."
That means out of just a handful of people, one is most likely
living in such an "arranged community."
*
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
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.
*
POEM OF THE WEEK
So They Asked For
A poem on love is what they daily ask for
they demand it really, they call for it
honest people with honest views and honest desires
so here it goes from me to you overnight delivery
like a boomerang that will soon enough come back
and hit me right in the face, Bullseye, I'll holler
and it'll make the woods tremble
Then I'll laugh out loud ha ha without
embarrassment. I can't find my eye, where is my eye
This is getting really hilarious, Has anybody seen my eye
[I mean the inner eye you dummy]
If love is the product of society
of long hours of work
processing and searching data
digitalized internet-ized by our intelligentsia
on the context of our fruitful economy and
growing industry, I don't want to purchase
it at retail stores. Not wholesale either.
I don't want gallons of it, pounds of it,
boxes of it loads of it tons of it zillions of it
I don't want whole sets of emotions just like
I reject whole sets of ideologies
I want this stuff to be expensive - spiritwise
classy fancy dandy randy clever witty and pretty
no refunds policy no returns ever no money back guarantee
no 30 days to fool with it, mess with it, and bring it back
put it on the shelf ready for the next purchase
I don't want it merchandised labeled
marketed publicized on the isles of any store
I don't want it bought, priced up, redeemed
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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