[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed May 18 10:01:09 PDT 2005
GWeekly_May_18.txt
**The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, May 18, 2005 PT1**
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart at pobox.com or gbnewby at pglaf.org
Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart at pobox.com
Please note that we are still in the process of correcting our statistical
program data. Last week we subtracted a few that we thought had been in a
duplicate count situation, but either that correction didn't stick or some
new similar problem has occured. As always, the total count should be the
consideration of some attention as to possibly being off by a few eBooks.
Please note that PT2 of this Newsletter is currently in flux, as we shift
from to an automated PT2 sender. The situation with Monthly Newsletters
is in flux to an even greater degree. Our apologies as we make changes.
*
HOT REQUESTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wanted: People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc.
*
Firefox : A commentary from Bill Hammack's public radio program
You can listen to this commentary at http://www.engineerguy.com
For years Microsoft's Internet Explorer has dominated the web
browser market - by some estimates capturing almost 100 percent.
But their share has dropped to 89% and continues to decline. An
upstart browser called Firefox recently clocked its 50 millionth
download. More is at stake, though, then a surfing the web.
The Firefox browser represents a new way to write software: No
giant corporation, just thousands of volunteers around the globe
linked via the internet. They are part of an informal revolution
called the Open Source movement.
By Open Source I mean that their computer code is available to
anyone to modify as they wish. This is a stark contrast to
Microsoft, for example, that keeps it Windows operating system
under tight wraps: Only Microsoft employees know how it does its
magic.
It would seem that this new model doesn't build strong software,
but there are thousands of programmers who will work on the code.
They are hyper-picky people who enjoy finding errors and fixing
them. The result to the user - and the main reason I use Open
Source software - is that it's incredibly robust - it rarely
crashes. In fact, it's the backbone of my computer network.
Microsoft would love to stop this development, but it can't
follow its usual strategy of buying up a competitor: There isn't
any company to buy, because Open Source software is the product
of individual programmers all over the world.
But what really terrifies Microsoft is the license used on this
type of software. It says that anyone can use the code, but - and
this is the twist that scares Microsoft - if you do you must
release your entire source code, and allow anyone to use it and
distribute it. No wonder a Microsoft Vice-president likens this
license to a virus.
So, will the Open Source movement be the David that eventually
slays the Microsoft Goliath? It's unlikely it'll dislodge Windows
any time soon from your home computer, but I'll tell you where to
watch the battle: On the internet.
Since 1995 the number of computers that route web traffic and
e-mail around the world has grown from twenty-five thousand to
six billion. Microsoft would love to dominate this market - yet
over 70% of these web servers run an Open Source Program called
Apache, compared to only 20% that use Microsoft software. And the
Open Source program is increasing its share every year.
Copyright 2005 William S. Hammack Enterprises
hammack at netbox.com
Reprinted with Bill's personal permission.
*
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.]
38 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
We Are ~1/4 Of The Way From 15,000 to 20,000!!!
16,248 eBooks As Of Today!!!
[See note at top, count might be as low as 16,244]
[I am running the rest of the counts separately]
13,140 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 1289 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~62% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~25% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
3,752 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~480 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 286 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 68 eBooks Per Week This Year
39 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,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
hart at pobox.com and gbnewby at pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
***
***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
*
Darwin!!!
Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection
and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers.
We could also use some help making some new editions of "The
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "Frankenstein."
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v0.2 version of PodReader is out, and it interfaces to PG. This allows
users to browse the catalog on their Desktop, pick a book, and have it
downloaded to their iPod in the correct format...this is a good plus for
PG users since it makes it a lot easier to get to PG documents.
http://homepage.mac.com/ptwobrussell/podreader.html
*
We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections
of the Internet Archive for potential Project Gutenberg eBooks.
http://www.archive.org
Don't worry, many of the numbers listed are out of date,
but you should get all the files when you pass through
to the original sites.
Click on "texts" to get started, feel free to pick up any
of the eBooks you would like to work on.
Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive!
*
REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
We are trying to start up a Project Gutenberg Russian Team,
and we need someone to translate simple email messages from
members of Project Gutenberg who want to provide a service
to the Russian Team, but who do not know Russian. . .these
people will be helping with scanning, finding books, etc.
The messages will be in MS Word's .doc format in Cyrillic,
we need them translated into English, also in a .doc file.
Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck <JBuck814366460 at aol.com>
*
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The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center [PGCC]
Please let us know of any eBook collections that
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You should see some significant changes this week.
*
There is a new experimental online reader available. Start from any
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Basically this paginates the .txt file and remembers your last position
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Please test it. It should work with any book that has a text file
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*
MACHINE TRANSLATION
We are seeking as much information as possible on the various
approaches to Machine Translation. Any brand names or contact
information would be greatly appreciated.
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 04.50 months of this year, we produced 1289 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Jan 1998 to produce our first 1289 eBooks!
That's 19 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 Years!
39 New eBooks This Week
49 New eBooks Last Week
88 New eBooks This Month [May]
~286 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
1289 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13183 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 52.50 Months!
About 250 books per month
16,248 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
12,700 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,544 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
437 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
6,827 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php
*
Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how
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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
The Online Books Page, of which over 5,300 are from PG.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar
listing which is now in limbo. If anyone knows what is
happening with the IPL, please let us know. Inquiries,
made months ago, and again recently, have not turned up
any current information.
You can try a new IPL service at:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/
It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which
has now been surpassed by the Online Books Page.
Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.
***
Today Is Day #133 of 2005
This Completes Week #19 and Month #04.50 [364 days this year]
231 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,752 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
68 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]
*** Permanent Requests For Assistance:
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***
Statistical Review
In the 19 weeks of this year, we have produced 1289 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 2/98 to produce our FIRST 1289 eBooks!!!
That's 19 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1289
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]
La belle Gabrielle, vol. 1, by Auguste Maquet 11300
[Language: French]
O cancioneiro portuguez da Vaticana, by Teophilo Braga 11299
[Subtitle: e suas relacoes com outros cancioneiros dos seculos XIII e XIV]
[From: Zeitschrift fuer Romanische Philologie 1877]
[Language: Portuguese]
Wanderings by Southern Waters, Eastern Aquitaine, Edward Harrison Barker 11298
Travels Through the Empire of Morocco, by John Buffa 11297
Tyomiehen vaimo, by Minna Canth 11296
[Language: Finnish]
Lehtori Hellmanin vaimo, by Minna Canth 11295
[Language: Finnish]
Juhana Herttuan ja Catharina Jagellonican lauluja, by Eino Leino 11294
[Language: Finnish]
Jan van Huysums Blomsterstykke, by Henrik Wergeland 11293
[Language: Norwegian]
Sekund vecnosti, by Dragutin J. Ilijc 11292
[Subtitle: istocnjacki roman]
[Translated title: One Second of Eternity: An Eastern Novel]
[Language: Serbian]
Kameno doba, by Jovan Zujovic 11291
[Title translation: Stone Age] [Language: Serbian]
Emilie the Peacemaker, by Mrs. Thomas Geldart 11290
What is Coming?, by H. G. Wells 11289
Ons Vaderland van de vroegste tijden tot de 15de eeuw, by Coopman 11288
[Author: M. Lievevrouw-Coopman]
[Language: Dutch]
De omwenteling van 1830, by Hendrik Conscience 11287
[Language: Dutch]
Meesterstukken van Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn, by G. Kielder 11286
[Subtitle: Leesboek voor het Lager en Voortgezet Onderwijs]
[Language: Dutch]
Een Heldin, by A.C. Kuiper 11285
[Language: Dutch]
Punch, Vol. 156, 26 Mar 1919, Ed. by Sir Owen Seaman 11284
Plays of Gods and Men, by Lord Dunsany 11283
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 2, No 336 11282
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 2, No 334 11281
Maggie Miller, by Mary J. Holmes 11280
The Slim Princess, by George Ade 11279
Folk-Tales of Napoleon, by Honore de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof 11278
[Subtitle: The Napoleon of the People; Napoleonder]
[Translated, and an introduction added, by George Kennan]
Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, by E. A. Wallis Budge 11277
Civil Government in the United States, by John Fiske 11276
[Title: Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some
Reference to Its Origins]
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus, by American Anti-Slavery Society 11275
[Contains: etexts 11271, 11272, 11273 and 11274]
Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 4 of 4, by American Anti-Slavery Society 11274
Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4, by American Anti-Slavery Society 11273
Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4, by American Anti-Slavery Society 11272
Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4, by American Anti-Slavery Society 11271
Practical Illustration of Woman's Right to Labor, by Marie E. Zakrzewska 11270
[Subtitle: A Letter from Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D. Late of Berlin, Prussia]
[Editor: Caroline H. Dall]
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 16,289 eBooks online as of May 18, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.96 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,422,556 x 16,248 x $.96 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,289 eBooks online as of May 18, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.62 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.79 when we had 12,700 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,248 eBooks in 33 Years and 10.50 Months We Averaged
~480 Per Year
40.0 Per Month
1.31 Per Day
At 1289 eBooks Done In The 133 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
10 Per Day
68 Per Week
286 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]
MOVING BEYOND LISTS FOR SEARCHING THE WEB
Supporters of non-text-based representations of Web search results got
a boost this week as Groxis, the makers of Grokker, released a version
of the software that runs as a Java plug-in for browsers. Previously,
the software, which returns search results in a circular "map," was
only available as a separate, $49 application. The company will now
depend on revenue from advertisements placed next to search results by
search engine Yahoo. For the past nine months, 2,000 students and
faculty of Stanford University have been testing the Grokker software,
which has earned a strong following there. Michael A. Keller,
Stanford's head librarian and an adviser to Groxis, said the
application allows users to find appropriate information more quickly.
Another company, Vivisimo, is developing a search engine that, while
still text-based, displays groups of folders next to ranked lists of
results. The folders give users another method of sifting through
search results for useful resources.
New York Times, 9 May 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/technology/09yahoo.html
We'd like more feedback on this, Grokker, and similar programs.
REPLACING BOOKS WITH COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
[This article is well worth reading, more than one point of view in it]
As digital delivery of printed material becomes increasingly efficient
and common, some colleges and universities are relocating books from
libraries to make room for facilities where students access content on
computers. The University of Southern California was one of the first
to create such a digital learning laboratory in 1994, and in the past
few years it has been joined by schools including Emory University, the
University of Georgia, the University of Arizona, the University of
Michigan, and the University of Houston. The University of Texas at
Austin has recently decided to move all of the books from its
undergraduate library to other facilities and create an "electronic
information commons." No one expects books to disappear completely,
but, according to Geneva Henry, executive director of the digital
library initiative at Rice University, libraries should be primarily
concerned with the exchange of ideas rather than simply storage of
books. As colleges and universities work to provide appropriate
services to students who have grown up with computers, the trend to use
electronic resources is likely to continue.
New York Times, 14 May 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/education/14library.html
CLICKING ON CAMPUS
Faculty at hundreds of colleges and universities are using small
electronic devices similar to television remote controls as part of
their in-class instruction. Commonly referred to as "clickers," the
devices allow students to respond to instructor questions by choosing
one of several options or, in some cases, by entering a numeric answer.
Answers are transmitted by either infrared or radio frequency signal to
a receiver connected to a computer, which logs the responses and can
track individual students' responses, as for a quiz, or display
responses from the entire class anonymously. Faculty who use the
devices said that because they allow students to respond anonymously,
they encourage participation from students who might be too shy to
answer verbally in class, and they elicit more honest answers on
controversial subjects. Stephen Bradforth, a chemistry professor at the
University of Southern California, said that after he began using
clickers in his classes, attendance and participation increased. He
also noted that the devices force professors to think differently about
how they teach their courses.
Wired News, 14 May 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67530,00.html
UNIVERSITY SEEKS NAMES OF BLOGGERS
Officials at St. Lawrence University are trying to obtain the names of
individuals responsible for a blog that includes content the university
finds inappropriate. Included in the blog, whose stated goal is to
fight a "right-wing assault" on the university, are pictures of and
harshly derogatory comments about students and faculty whom the blog's
contributors see as conservative. Other blog posts criticize university
policies and administrators, but Macreena Doyle, a spokesperson for St.
Lawrence, said the institution is most concerned about the anonymous
attacks on students. "If these were posters attacking students on
campus," said Doyle, "we would take action." The university has filed
"John Doe" court actions with Time Warner Cable, whose service was used
to make postings to the blog, demanding information that would identify
the blog's contributors. Google disclosed IP addresses from which blog
postings came after being ordered to do so by the courts, but it is not
clear whether Time Warner will do the same.
Inside Higher Ed, 13 May 2005
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/13/lawrence
TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM AT U OF MAINE TO REQUIRE IBOOKS
Beginning in the fall 2005 semester, students entering the teacher
certification program at the College of Education and Human Development
at the University of Maine will be required to have Apple iBook laptop
computers. According to Robert Cobb, dean of the college, "It is
essential that aspiring teachers understand and know how and when to
use wireless laptop technology in the teaching and learning process."
The machines will meet a standard configuration, both for hardware and
software, as determined by the college. The college's Teacher
Education Faculty opted for Apple computers because they are less
frequently the targets of computer viruses, relative to Windows-based
machines, and because of the state's Learning Technology Initiative.
Under that program, all seventh- and eighth-grade students and teachers
in Maine public schools have iBook computers.
Macworld, 11 May 2005
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/05/11/umaine/index.php
IBM PUSHES FIREFOX
The Firefox Web browser received a boost this week when IBM began
encouraging all of its more than 300,000 employees to use the open
source browser instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).
Employees will be able to download the browser from company servers,
and IBM help desk staff will be trained to support the browsers.
Despite having been downloaded about 50 million times since its launch
last November, Firefox is still dwarfed by IE, which holds more than 90
percent of the browser market. IBM has a history of supporting open
source products, and the Firefox announcement furthers its support of
open source technologies while shedding some of the company's
dependence on Microsoft products. Brian Truskowski, chief information
officer at IBM, said supporting Firefox is a "good example of walking
the talk when it comes to open standards and open source." Truskowski said
he expects IBM will ultimately save money using Firefox instead of IE.
CNET, 12 May 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5704750.html
DUTCH ACADEMICS LAUNCH OPEN-ACCESS SITE
Dutch academics have publicly announced a Web site that offers free
access to scholarly material from all of the country's universities.
The Digital Academic Repositories (DARE) project, which started a year
ago as a test program, is a joint effort among all Dutch universities,
the National Library of the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
Research. DARE includes 47,000 academic articles and other digital
resources, including bibliographic information, full text materials,
and audio and video files. Organizers of the project said no other
country allows such widespread and easy access to its academic
research. Such open access publishing projects remain anathema to most
commercial publishers, but supporters of open access argue that it is
the appropriate publishing model, given digital technologies and
increasing subscription costs for traditional academic publishing.
The Register, 11 May 2005
http://www.theregister.com/2005/05/11/open_access_research/
HAMLET DATABASE NEARS COMPLETION
An online database that includes all available commentary on
Shakespeare's Hamlet is expected to debut within the next few months.
The database was the brainchild of Bernice W. Kliman, who, in the early
1990s was working on a printed edition of such a collection for the
Modern Language Association. Kliman saw the Internet as a better tool
for such a project, and she raised about $1 million from the National
Endowment for the Humanities for her idea. Over the past 10 years,
scholars including Eric C. Rasmussen, a professor of English at the
University of Nevada at Reno, have been working to gather every bit of
scholarship and criticism ever written about the play and add it to the
database. When the database is complete, users will be "able to see 400
years' worth of commentary" for any single line of the play, according
to Rasmussen. Certain items from critics in the 20th century had to be
left out, however, due to copyright concerns. "We tried to, of course,
credit the edition," said Kliman, "but also just paraphrase rather than
copy sentence by sentence."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 May 2005
http://chronicle.com/free/2005/05/2005051001t.htm
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
The list of billion dollar companies defaulting on their
pensions plans is enormous, including Bethelhem Steel,
National Steel, Polaroid, Kaiser Aluminum, US Airways, etc.
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
UK Member of Parliament Galloway's entire address to U.S.
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
Given court rulings and new bills signed into law, it is
now easier for corporations to declare bankruptcy to get
out of their pension plan responsibilities, but in great
reversal, it is now harder for bankruptcy to be declared
by an individual or family.
It turns out this one is having increased effects, while
not being reported.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Graphical representations of search data, see above,
will become a major information tool.
Try the new Grokker. . . .
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Women who wear makeup get promoted 30% faster than
those who do not.
*
You've probably seen something like this statistic:
"A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate Washington spends it."
Then:
"This may have been true a half a billion seconds ago, too,
but now they're spending faster, so it doesn't take so long.
It's less than five hours."
And lately:
"It's 3 hours, 30 minutes now, for the feds to spend a billion USD,
not counting some off-budget expenditures."
*
"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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