[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Mar 16 10:02:48 PST 2005
GWeekly_March_16.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, March 16, 2005 PT1*
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HEADLINE NEWS!
THE MAGNA CARTA IS DEAD! LONG LIVE ANTI-TERRORISM!
The Magna Carta, the foundation of democracy and human rights,
for about 800 years, and chosen as Project Gutenberg's 10,000th
eBook selection, has just been voided by Parliament in London.
Civil rights expressly granted now by over 100 governments around
the world have just now been overthrown by their founding country
in an election year bid by various parties and coalitions of the
U. K. Parliament, and many predict that such rights will now
continue to disappear in what is generally known as "domino effect."
Countries that previously condemed and outlawed such powers on
the general principles of freedom and democracy became terrorist
regimes by their own definitions after 9/11, and these practices
were finally ruled as illegal as a three judge panel had finally
ruled three months ago that that eight foreign terror suspects
has been illegally imprisoned in violation of human rights laws.
However, with a Parliamentary election expected in two months,
both the Conservative and Labour parties wanted to appear very
tough on terrorism, even to the point of being publicly chastised
for debasing the very foundations of their country to do so.
Britain's lower house passed just such a bill four times, and it
was defeated four times in the upper house in marathon sessions
that eventually lasted well over 24 hours.
However, in the end, when all was said and done, the civil rights
of humanity were dealt a severe blow by the very country who made
them in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago.
After years in prison without being charged, these eight are now
still under arrest, though now it is a "house arrest" under which
they are confined from 7PM to 7AM and report to the government any
time they enter or leave the house, even though they had already
been forced to wear electronic monitor tags that tell goverment
agents where they are at any given moment.
In addition, these eight are not allowed at any gatherings other
than standard prayers at their mosques, or to have any contact
with the outside world from home via cell phones, the Internet, etc.
No visitors are allowed other than lawyers, doctors, children, etc.,
other than someone providing goods or services. Only one bank account
is allowed per person, to be severely monitored by the government.
Even the most staunch supporters of giving away the public's freedom
to do battle with terrorism fear that this is all just electioneering
on the parts of those passing this law, as it would appear prisoners
were being held without rights long before 9/11, just not with quite
so much publicity. [The Irish Republicans, for example.]
There are serious questions as to how long such a law can remain in
existence in a democracy, and how long a democracy can remain under
such law.
This is one issue that is going to come back to haunt its authors.
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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
2 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
85 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
15,767 eBooks As Of Today!!!
12,705 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 811 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~57% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~15% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
4,233 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~468 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 322 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 81 eBooks Per Week This Year
87 This Week
68 Last Week [corrected from 66]
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
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 02.50 months of this year, we produced 811 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to June 1996 to produce our first 811 eBooks!
That's 10 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 Years!
87 New eBooks This Week
68 New eBooks Last Week
155 New eBooks This Month [Mar]
324 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
811 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
12705 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 50.50 Months!
About 252 books per month
15,767 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
11,912 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,855 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
425 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
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Here is a snapshot from today:
Yesterday's Goal: 6,150 pages
Yesterday's Total: 6,804 pages
Completed Projects:
Apr 2004 - 277
May 2004 - 236
Jun 2004 - 232
Jul 2004 - 233
Aug 2004 - 220
Sep 2004 - 182
Oct 2004 - 263
Nov 2004 - 280
Dec 2004 - 287
Jan 2005 - 248
Feb 2005 - 323
Mar 2005 - 152
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
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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
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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=========~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 #70 of 2005
This Completes Week #10 and Month #02.50 [364 days this year]
294 Days/46 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
4,233 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
81 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 10 weeks of this year, we have produced 809 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 02/97 to produce our FIRST 809 eBooks!!!
That's 10 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #809
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
Feb 1997 Speeches: Literary & Social by Charles Dickens[20][dslasxxx.xxx] 824
Feb 1997 The Life of St. Declan of Ardmore [stdecxxx.xxx] 823
Feb 1997 The Tarn of Eternity, by Frank Tymon [etarnxxx.xxx] 822C
Feb 1997 Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens [Dickens # 19] [dombyxxx.xxx] 821
Feb 1997 Edison, His Life and Inventions, by Dyer & Martin [ehlaixxx.xxx] 820
Feb 1997 The History of the Telephone, by Herbert N. Casson[thottxxx.xxx] 819
Feb 1997 The Aeroplane Speaks, by H. Barber [R.F. Corps] [arspkxxx.xxx] 818
Feb 1997 The Jargon File, 4.0.0, by various editors [jarg400x.xxx] 817
Feb 1997 Democracy In America, Alexis de Toqueville Vol 2 [2dinaxxx.xxx] 816
Feb 1997 Democracy In America, Alexis de Toqueville Vol 1 [1dinaxxx.xxx] 815
Feb 1997 Hunting Sketches, by Anthony Trollope [Trollope#2][hntskxxx.xxx] 814
Feb 1997 Reminiscences of Tolstoy, by Ilya Tolstoy[his son][rtlstxxx.xxx] 813
Feb 1997 Catalan's Constant to 1.5M Places [see#15][math18][ctcstxxa.xxx] 812
Feb 1997 Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, Newer Edition[drfstaxx.xxx] 811
[Title: The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus; From the Quarto of 1616]
[Ed: Alexander Dyce]
Feb 1997 George Silverman's Explanation/Charles Dickens[18][gsilxxxx.xxx] 810
Feb 1997 Holiday Romance, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #17] [hldrmxxx.xxx] 809
Feb 1997 The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan [G#2] [cpogsxxx.xxx] 808
Feb 1997 Hunted Down, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #16] [hntdnxxx.xxx] 807
Feb 1997 Philoktetes, by Sophocles, Trans. Gregory McNamee [phlokxxx.xxx] 806
Feb 1997 This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald [#1][tsparxxx.xxx] 805
Feb 1997 A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne [senjrxxx.xxx] 804
[The Following eBooks Were The First Project Gutebnerg eBooks In French]
Feb 1997 La Duchesse de Palliano, by Stendhal[in French]#6][8plnoxxx.xxx] 803
Feb 1997 Vittoria Accoramboni, by Stendhal [in French] #5][8vtraxxx.xxx] 802
Feb 1997 Les Cenci by Stendhal[Marie-Henri Beyle][French#4][8cncixxx.xxx] 801
Jan 1997 Tour Du Mond 80 Jours [in French] by Jules Verne#5[?80jrxxx.xxx] 800
Jan 1997 De La Terre a La Lune [in French] by Jules Verne#4[?lunexxx.xxx] 799
Jan 1997 Le Rouge et Le Noir, by Stendhal [in French] #3[8rougxxx.xxx] 798
Jan 1997 L'Abbesse de Castro etc, by Stendhal[in French] #2[8castxxx.xxx] 797
Jan 1997 La Chartreuse de Parme, Stendhal [French#1][?parmxxx.xxx] 796
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 15,767 eBooks online as of March 16, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.99 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,247,806 x 15,765 x $.99 = $1+ trillion
With 15,767 eBooks online as of March 16, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.63 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.84 when we had 11,912 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 15,767 eBooks in 33 Years and 08.50 Months We Averaged
~468 Per Year
39.0 Per Month
1.28 Per Day
At 811 eBooks Done In The 70 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
11.6 Per Day
81 Per Week
322 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]
CHICAGO LOOKS AT CITY-WIDE WI-FI
Officials in Chicago have authorized a study of the feasibility of a
city-wide wireless network, despite a bill in the state legislature
that would ban municipalities from acting as utilities for such
services. Reportedly at the urging of commercial broadband providers,
State Sen. Steven Rauschenberger introduced a bill that would forbid
cities from either offering broadband service or "reselling" such
service to a company that would then manage it. Alderman Edward Burke
said he would introduce legislation that would give the city the right
to install a broadband wireless network before the state could pass the
law that would prevent it. Christopher O'Brien, chief information
officer for Chicago, said a city-wide network would likely consist of
about 7,500 antennas on light poles and would cost more than $18
million. One option, said O'Brien, would be to enter into an agreement
with a company that would install and maintain the network and would
pay the city rent for the use of the light poles.
Federal Computer Week, 14 March 2005
http://www.fcw.com/article88275
SCHOOLS CRITICIZED OVER REJECTION OF NOSY APPLICANTS
A number of business-school applicants who were rejected due to their
looking at university admissions records online without authorization
have spoken out against the universities' decision to exclude them.
Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, and MIT have rejected
the applications of 153 individuals who used a hacker's instructions
to try to find out if they had been accepted. Although some applicants
involved acknowledged that accessing the records was wrong, they
contended that the actions do not constitute hacking and that the
institutions have overreacted. One rejected applicant wrote a letter to
Harvard, admitting a "lapse in judgment" but noting that he "wasn't
trying to harm anyone and wasn't trying to get an advantage over
anyone." Len Metheny, CEO and president of ApplyYourself, the software
that all the affected schools used for applications, said the procedure
to access the records was sufficiently complicated that anyone doing so
would have to have known it was unauthorized.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 March 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/03/2005031104n.htm
APPLE WINS RIGHT TO SUBPOENA E-MAIL RECORDS
New iPod, etc., outed before official announcement]
A judge in California has ruled that Apple Computer has the right to
subpoena records of an e-mail provider to determine the source of leaks
of confidential company information on upcoming products. In his
ruling, Judge James P. Kleinberg was careful to sidestep the question
of protection for journalists and to note that his ruling does not
concern the merits of Apple's underlying case. Rather, he found that
under California law, the information published on Mac enthusiast sites
constitutes stolen property, as would physical property that had been
stolen. While the law does not allow prevention of such publications,
those responsible--regardless of the definition of "journalist"--must
bear the consequences of doing so, said Kleinberg. Apple hopes through
the proceedings to identify those individuals who leaked the
information that was posted on the enthusiast sites. The operators of
those sites are not the target of Apple's efforts. Kleinberg delayed
enforcement of his ruling for seven days to provide an opportunity for
the defendants to appeal.
CNET, 11 March 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-1047_3-5611285.html
You have been reading excerpts from Edupage:
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Malaria Drastically Underreported
It turns out that the media have been giving false reports
on malaria these past years, with half a billion people on
file as having malaria in 2002, but probably less than one
half that many were acknowledged.
The possible reason behind this is that most media outlets
are not particularly concerned with Africa, other than the
portion bordering the Middle Eastern oil/conflict region.
At least half of the world's malaria cases are located out
of the regions the media concentrates on, in a sub-Saharan
region of Africa.
However, about one quarter of malaria cases are located in
Asia and the Western Pacific.
And this is only counting the most deadly form of Malaria,
plasmodium falciparum malaria; 515 million cases per year.
As the World Wide Web brings us closer together, the media
can no longer continue to keep us apart.
*
In a related story, it would appear that "The Plague" your
history books mentioned in Europe, actually more like some
world series of plagues, conferred upon its survivors, and
their descendants, resistance to AIDS.
*
In yet another related story, having one gene for "sickle-
cell anemia" gives resistance to malaria, which explains a
confounding persistence of sickle-cell anemia in Africa.
*
FOUL UP CAUSES ANTHRAX SCARE, STOCK MARKET FALLS
[Official Pentagon Spokesman Remains Anonymous]
Apparently a test sample either was not cleaned out of
the anthrax testing machines or such a sample was placed
close or on the air filter from the Pentagon Remote Delivery
Facility to cause the recent anthrax scare this past week.
As a result, 100's of government employees were placed on
a three day regimen of antibiotics at an undisclosed cost
in terms of medical support, paid work leave, lost work, etc.,
not to mention the substantial loss to our finanical markets.
"Quality Control Problems" were officially announced as the
cause of the scare by a senior Pentagon official who has
insisted on remaining nameless.
*
In Juxaposition, However, It Appears The Bird Flu Has Been
Undercounted To A Major Degree In A Different Kind Of Error
*
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"That which does not kill you makes you stronger."
That's why our cockroaches and rats are so tough.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Pharacological [drug] companies will spend well over half their
entire budgets this year on their marketing divisions and stock
dividends while only spending 3% on developing new drugs and 9%
on revamping old drugs to renew patents or to develop new drugs
that do not out perform old drugs.
Figures are from the US SEC [Securities Exchange Commission]
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
A few years ago the average citizen of the world had not ever
made a single phone call. Today even the average citizen of
Africa has made a phone call. [Figures from Reuters]
*
"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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