[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newseltter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Sep 7 10:01:40 PDT 2005
Weekly_September_07.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 7, 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
2 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*
***500 eBooks Averaged Per Month Since July 4, 1971***
17,106 eBooks As Of Today!!!
[Includes Australian eBooks]
We Are 85% of the Way to 20,000!!!
13,978 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's 250+ eBooks per Month for ~56 Months
We Have Produced 2150 eBooks in 2005!!!
2,804 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~500 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 269 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 61 eBooks Per Week This Year
43 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 ~1.75 years from Oct. 2003 to Aug. 2005 from 10,000 to 17,000
*
***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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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
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***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 08.00 months of this year, we produced 2150 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Apr 2000 to produce our first 2150 eBooks!
That's 35 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 Years!!!
43 New eBooks This Week
59 New eBooks Last Week
264 New eBooks This Month [Aug]
~269 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
2150 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
14044 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 56.00 Months!
Over 250 books per month!
17,106 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,731 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,375 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
480 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
[This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted
at the U.S. site: www.gutenberg.org ]
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
7,424 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
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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.
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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 #231 of 2005
This Completes Week #33 and Month #07.75 [364 days this year]
133 Days/22 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
2,980 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
61 Weekly Average in 2005
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
43 Only 43 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
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***
Statistical Review
In the 35 weeks of this year, we have produced 2150 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 02/00 to produce our FIRST 2150 eBooks!!!
That's 35 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #2150
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]
The Lifted Veil, by George Eliot 2165
May 2000 The Lumley Autograph Susan Fenimore Cooper[SFC#3][lumlyxxx.xxx] 2164
May 2000 The Bridge-Builders, by Mark Twain [MT#16][brdgbxxx.xxx] 2163
Apr 2000 Anarchism and Other Essays, by Emma Goldman [nrcsmxxx.xxx] 2162
Apr 2000 Song Book of Quong Lee of Limehouse, Thomas Burke [qunglxxx.xxx] 2161
Apr 2000 The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Tobias Smollett[txohcxxx.xxx] 2160
Apr 2000 A Little Tour In France, by Henry James[James #20][altifxxx.xxx] 2159
Apr 2000 The Prime Minister, by Anthony Trollope[Trollope5][prmnsxxx.xxx] 2158
Apr 2000 Female Suffrage, by Susan Fenimore Cooper [SFC #3][sffrgxxx.xxx] 2157
Apr 2000 China and the Manchus, by Herbert A. Giles [#3][?mnchxxx.xxx] 2156
Apr 2000 Phyllis of Philistia, by Frank Frankfort Moore [phophxxx.xxx] 2155
Apr 2000 Around the World in 80 Days Jr. Ed. by Jules Verne[80dayxxa.xxx] 2154
(Also see #103)
Apr 2000 Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell [Gaskell #4][mbrtnxxx.xxx] 2153
Apr 2000 On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales, Jack London 72-78[mklmtxxx.xxx] 2152
Apr 2000 The Works of Edgar Allan Poe V5[Raven Edition][10][poe5vxxx.xxx] 2151
Apr 2000 The Works of Edgar Allan Poe V4[Raven Edition][#9][poe4vxxx.xxx] 2150
. . .
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books Yet???
1.1 Trillion eBooks Given Away
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,465,062,717 that would be 17,106 x 64,650,627 = ~1.1 Trillion !!!
Have We Given Away A Trillion Dollars Yet???
With 17,106 eBooks online as of September 07, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.90 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,650,627 x 17,106 x $.90 = ~$1 Trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 17,106 eBooks online as of September 07, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.59 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.73 when we had 13,611 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 17,108 eBooks in 34 Years and 02.00 Months We Averaged
~500 Per Year
41.7 Per Month
1.37 Per Day
At 2150 eBooks Done In The 245 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
8.8 Per Day
61 Per Week
269 Per Month
If you are interested in the population of the world or of the U.S.
you might want to know that these numbers, official as they appear,
are just just estimates, and perhaps not as accurate as we hope.
Recently the U.S. Congress, pertaining to district reapportionment,
who gets to vote for which Congresspeople, decided that many of the
districts were undercounted by 5%, perhaps then later deciding that
all districts had been undercounted by 5% [can't recall details].
However, I just this moment heard a news item that made me wonder a
bit more about the accuracy of the U.S. Census. A "Special Census"
is taking place in Normal, Illinois, that is expected to count more
people, by a factor of 3,000 or 3,400, depending on which source.
45,386 was the population as per the 2000 Census, so 3,000 added to
this would be an increase of 6.6%, and 3,400 would be 7.5%, above a
possibly automatic increase of 5% as per the same terms above but I
presume this is in addition to previous adjustments.
Of course, we should consider that we would have to double figures,
perhaps to 15% from those above, if are considering the normal time
between censuses of 10 years, these are for 5 years' growth.
In previous news I heard about the U.S. Census, no mention was made
about the annexation of various nearly locations as a cause of this
normally unexpected growth, but it is mentioned at the site I found
on the subject of the current Special Census.
If annexation is the primary cause of such increases, country wide,
then we should not be expecting a huge rise in the 2010 Census, but
rather should expect something more along the norm. However, if it
is not annexation, but more actual people on the average, then this
might be an indicator that the population of the U.S. may have seen
300 million go by some time ago.
For more details, see: www.normal.org/WhatsNew/Census.htm
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]
NO DECISION YET FROM JUDGE ON PATRIOT ACT CASE
U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall has postponed deciding whether
a Connecticut library may publicly disclose its identity as the
institution whose records have been sought by the FBI under the PATRIOT
Act. The act forces any organization whose records have been subpoenaed
to be silent about the investigation, but the library in question and
the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a suit, alleging that
such restrictions are unconstitutional. Hall heard arguments from both
sides this week but declined to issue a ruling until she hears more
from the FBI. Observers noted that Hall seemed dubious of the
government's claim that identifying the library would threaten the
investigation. She said the FBI must demonstrate that risk, which it so
far has not done. Pointing out that controversial provisions of the
PATRIOT Act are under review by Congress, Hall suggested that allowing
the public to see how the law is being applied could be an important
factor in deciding whether the act will be extended.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 September 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/09/2005090102t.htm
MASSACHUSETTS PONDERS GOING OPEN SOURCE
The state of Massachusetts is considering a proposal that would require
all state documents to be compliant with the Open Document format
rather than requiring proprietary software. The Open Document format is
part of Open Office 2.0, a free software suite that is currently under
development. Saying that the proposal is not "an anti-Microsoft
initiative," Peter Quinn, chief information officer of the
Commonwealth, pointed out that 200-year-old papers remain readable in
their original format. He said he hopes that today's records will
remain accessible far into the future, regardless of the comings and
goings of various vendors and their products. Quinn said he hopes
Microsoft will decide to support the format, which allows documents to
be readable by any computer, similar to Adobe PDF. Microsoft's Alan
Yates said the company would not agree to the Open Document format. He
noted that Microsoft provides a free XML schema that allows users
without Microsoft Office to read documents created by that suite of
applications.
Wall Street Journal, 1 September 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112561152150829537,00.html
PURDUE TURNS TO PODCASTS
Purdue University has begun providing podcasts of lectures for certain
courses. Purdue offers recordings for students who miss a class or who
want to review specific lectures. Previously, recordings were available
for about 100 courses but only on audio cassettes. Starting this fall,
recordings for lectures from some courses are availble as MP3 files,
allowing students to download the recordings rather than going to the
library to check out tapes. Michael Gay, manager of broadcast networks
and services, said faculty who agree to have their courses added to the
podcast service need only submit an online request form and wear a
microphone while they lecture. So far, almost 50 courses are part of
the podcasting service, and Purdue officials hope that number rises
next semester. Currently, podcasts are available publicly, though in
the future they may be restricted to campus users. Users of the service
can download a specific lecture or all of the lectures from an entire
course. As for the notion that some students might decide simply never
to attend lectures in favor of listening to the downloads, Gay
commented that "most instructors agree that any student who thinks an
audio recording is a surrogate for class is doomed to failure." Critics
said podcasting programs favor students who can afford portable music
players, but Gay noted that the podcasts are in a format that can be
played on any computer.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 31 August 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/08/2005083101t.htm
GOOGLE PRESSES FORWARD SCANNING BOOKS
Google is moving ahead with its plans to digitize vast numbers of books
and make them available online. The search engine this week expanded
its book search service to 14 countries, including the United Kingdom,
Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia, where users
can now search English-language books. Although laws in each country
dictate small differences in how the service works, according to Jim
Gerber, director of content partnerships, in all countries the service
offers three types of results: for books in the public domain, the
entire text is available online; copyrighted works whose publishers
have signed agreements with Google are available to the extent that
those agreements allow; for copyrighted books whose publishers have not
made agreements with Google, only selected portions will be available
online. This last group of results has raised the ire of publishers,
who argue that Google has no right to display any part of copyrighted
works without permission. Google has offered publishers the opportunity
to identify specific titles that will be excluded from the service, but
most publishing groups have said that approach is inherently backwards,
giving Google blanket authority until and unless publishers complain.
Internet News, 31 August 2005
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3531221
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Where Is The Offical Aid For Katrina's Victims???
Most of the efforts we are seeing seem to be private,
with little or no presence by the national guards, or
the military services, Coast Guard, FEMA [the Federal
Emergency Management Agency]. etc.
With years of general warnings, and days of specifics
for this particular event, the questions being raised
are simple: why aren't the official agencies there?
Some say it's a paperwork SNAFU, totally FUBARed.
Others simply point to the fact the Republicans, such
as they are, take care of their own, and this results
from a long standing tradition of Republican snubbing
of Democrats, who are in office there.
Many are asking if the results would be the same, for
Florida, where the president's brother's governor, if
Katrina had struck there instead.
Sean Penn and others have organized their own various
personal efforts and have been rescuing people on the
verge of drowning, suffering from malnutrition, and a
host of other life-threatening situations, and theirs
is an effort that seems to be more alone than anyone,
at least a week ago, would have expected.
After 9 hours in a private boat making the rounds for
various rescues and giving aid, Mr. Penn reported the
official presence in the entire 9 hours numbered only
three other boats containing official recscue people.
Similar stories from other celebrities making efforts
on their own, but downplayed even further, perhaps at
their own requests.
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
In a telethon to help victims of hurricane Katrina,
Kanye West pointed out what was on many minds, that
"the the setup, the way America's set up to help the
the poor, the black people, the less well-off as
slowly as possible. . .and they've given them
permission to go down and shoot us."
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
George Tenet received the highest US civilian honor,
the Medal of Freedom, for his role as CIA chief; for
others involved in the same efforts concerning 9/11,
the weapons of mass destruction fiasco, etc., the ax
is still falling, and heads are still rolling.
In the same ceremony, President Bush also honored in
a similar manner Four Star General Tommy Franks, for
his unparalled success in our Afghansistan policies,
and L. Paul Bremer for his even greater contribution
to carrying our our policies in Irag, as the interim
ruler of the country; credit will also obviously get
given to others for these as the ax continues work.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Continuing with last week's prediction:
China will continue bidding for, and buying, more and more
of the world's infrastructure, to the sad detriment of U.S.
Congress' inability to veto purchases in other countries.
This has obviously been continuing this week, and likely
will become an ongoing event for the next decade or two:
the real question is will the media give the full story?
No mention of China's effect on US energy prices at all,
they are blaming it all on Katrina, and each other.
*QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If Katrina had hit a big Florida city, such as Miami,
St. Petersburg, Tampa, Orlando, or, heaven forbid, the
Disney complex or Cape Canaveral, do you think brother
W would have taken so long to help his brother Jeb?"
[For those who may have forgotten, Jeb Bush, the First
Brother, is Governor of Florida, and may have been the
lynchpin of the Republicans' efforts to carry the last
two presidential elections.]
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
10 years ago there were 2 million cars in China.
Since then they have averaged nearly that many new cars per year,
for a current total of over 20 million.
If they grow to 10 times more again in the next 10 years, China
will have about the same number of cars as the United States.
Then where will the price of gas have risen to?
*
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 think this is now much greater]
1 would be 79 years old or more.
Of those born today, the life expectancy is only 63 years,
but no country any longer issues copyrights that are sure
to expire within that 63 year period.
I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date,
as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer
then there would be only 60 million people in the world who
owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States
households have computers, out of over 100 million households.
Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in
the United States.
I just called our local reference librarian and got the number
of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at:
111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports.
If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households
is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million,
and that's counting just one computer per household, and not
counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc.
I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate
given above, and would like some help researching these and other
such figures, if anyone is interested.
BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic
that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old.
This means that basically 90% of the world's population would
never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations
offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US
population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich
live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer
than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is
distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they
can receive more per year, but because they will live more years
to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never
receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in.
*
POEM OF THE WEEK
Parade 1
daylight dreams dancing flashes
playing loudly with restless chains
of hour glass around their necks
apparitions failing to haunt
their fear handed over to night chaos
glaring whispers interrupted sleep
then darkness claws around an eerie death
sheer madness lightning brilliance
the giants of color laugh delicious laughter
soft love locked in the fight of two drops of dew
silky drapes unveil tall windows
the band of rainbow giants appears awake
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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