[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Sep 14 09:58:26 PDT 2005
Weekly_September_14.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 14, 2005 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971********
PT1A
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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
***PT1A is above, PT1B is below.***
*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
8 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
51 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
***PT1B is above, PT1A is below.***
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones*
17,130 eBooks As Of Today!!!
[Includes Australian eBooks]
We Are 85% of the Way to 20,000!!!
14,068 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's 250+ eBooks per Month for ~56 Months
We Have Produced 2174 eBooks in 2005!!!
2,826 to go to 20,000!!!
7,439 from Distributed Proofreaders
481 From Project Gutenberg of Australia
We Have Now Averaged ~502 eBooks Per Year Since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging ~264 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging ~62 eBooks Per Week This Year
24 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,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing. Note well
that PT1 is now being send as PT1A and PT1B.
[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
***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***
Weekly_September_14.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 14, 2005 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971********
PT1B
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
We are trying an experiment this month to provide shorter Newsletter files.
PT1 of the Newsletter will be split into to sections starting and ending at
the points below where you will see this marker"
"***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***"
Please send your comments on this.
***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
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This is much more important than many of us realize!
***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 08.25 months of this year, we produced 2174 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to May 2000 to produce our first 2174 eBooks!
That's 35 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 Years!!!
24 New eBooks This Week
59 New eBooks Last Week
24 New eBooks This Month [Sep]
~264 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
2174 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
14068 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 55.75 Months!
Over 250 books per month!
17,130 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,801 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,329 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
481 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
7,439 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
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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:
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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 #252 of 2005
This Completes Week #35 and Month #08.25 [364 days this year]
112 Days/17 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
2,826 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 35 weeks of this year, we have produced 2174 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 5/00 to produce our FIRST 2174 eBooks!!!
That's 35 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #2064
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]
Jun 2000 The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler [iliadxxx.xxx] 2199
May 2000 Stories from Pentamerone, by Giambattista Basile [pntmnxxx.xxx] 2198
May 2000 The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky[Dostoyevsky #2][gamblxxx.xxx] 2197
[Tr.: C.J. Hogarth]
May 2000 An Iceland Fisherman, by Pierre Loti [icfshxxx.xxx] 2196
[Tr.: M. Jules Cambon]
May 2000 The Master of Mrs. Chilvers by Jerome K. Jerome 19[mschlxxx.xxx] 2195
May 2000 Mauprat, by George Sand [Tr.: Stanley Young] #1[muprtxxx.xxx] 2194
[Author AKA: Lucile Amandine Aurore Dupin; Armentine Lucile Aurore
Dupin, later Dudevant] (See also #138)
May 2000 A Ward of the Golden Gate, by Bret Harte[Harte #6][wotggxxx.xxx] 2193
May 2000 The Dark Flower, by John Galsworthy [dkflrxxx.xxx] 2192
May 2000 Boy Scouts in Mexico, by G. Harvey Ralphson [bsimxxxx.xxx] 2191
May 2000 Isabella von Aegypten, by Ludwig Achim von Arnim [?isblxxx.xxx] 2190
[Language: German]
May 2000 Der Gwissenswurm, by Ludwig Anzengruber [German] [?gwssxxx.xxx] 2189
[Language: German]
May 2000 Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, by Rilke [?maltxxx.xxx] 2188
[Author: Rainer Maria Rilke]
[Language: German]
May 2000 Oberon, by Christoph Martin Wieland [In German] [?oberxxx.xxx] 2187
[Language: German]
May 2000 Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling[Kipling#9][cptcrxxx.xxx] 2186
May 2000 Maruja, by Bret Harte [Bret Harte #5][marujxxx.xxx] 2185
May 2000 Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella L. Bird [utrkjxxx.xxx] 2184
May 2000 Three Men on the Bummel, by Jerome K. Jerome [#18][tmotbxxx.xxx] 2183
May 2000 The Marble Faun V. 2, by Nathaniel Hawthorne[NH#9][2faunxxx.xxx] 2182
May 2000 The Marble Faun V. 1, by Nathaniel Hawthorne[NH#8][1faunxxx.xxx] 2181
May 2000 In A Hollow Of The Hills, by Bret Harte [Harte #5][hllhlxxx.xxx] 2180
May 2000 Drift from Two Shores, by Bret Harte [Harte #4[[dftshxxx.xxx] 2179
May 2000 By Shore and Sedge, by Bret Harte [Bret Harte #3][bysnsxxx.xxx] 2178
May 2000 Thankful Blossom, by Bret Harte [Bret Harte #2][tkfblxxx.xxx] 2177
Seven Discourses on Art, by Joshua Reynolds 2176
[Editor: Henry Morley]
May 2000 You Never Can Tell, by [George] Bernard Shaw [#7] [nvrctxxx.xxx] 2175
May 2000 Frau und Kindern auf der Spur, by Gerold K. Rohner[?spurxxx.xxx] 2174C
[Language: German]
May 2000 Thoughts on Present Discontents, etc., by Burke [thdscxxx.xxx] 2173
[Author: Edmund Burke] [Ed. & Intro.: Henry Morley]
May 2000 That Mainwaring Affair, by Maynard Barbour [mnwrnxxx.xxx] 2172
Brother Jacob, by George Eliot 2171
May 2000 Misc Writings and Speeches, Lord Macaulay V4 of 4[4mwsmxxx.xxx] 2170
. . .
May 2000 Misc Writings and Speeches, Lord Macaulay V1 of 4[1mwsmxxx.xxx] 2167
May 2000 King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard [HRH #9][?kslmxxx.xxx] 2166
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
[Biographic Sketch by Hippolyte Havel]
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
***
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
1.1 Trillion eBooks Given Away
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,466,491,518 that would be 17,130 x 64,664,916 = ~1.1 Trillion !!!
With 17,130 eBooks online on September 24, 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 64,664,916 x 17,130 x $.90 = ~$1 Trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 17,130 eBooks online on September 24, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.58 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.72 when we had 13,801 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 17,130 eBooks in 34 Years and 02.25 Months We Averaged
~502 Per Year
41.8 Per Month
1.38 Per Day
At 2174 eBooks Done In The 252 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
8.6 Per Day
62 Per Week
264 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.
***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***
*Headline News from Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
RIAA AND MPAA JOIN INTERNET2
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA) have become corporate members of
Internet2, joining companies including the Ford Motor Company and
C-Span. "Internet2 is a stepping stone between the research lab and the
commercial sector," said Lauren Kallens, a spokesperson for the
organization. Earlier this year, the entertainment groups sued hundreds
of Abilene users for using the network to illegally trade files, but,
according to Gayle Osterberg, a spokesperson for the MPAA, the groups'
membership in Internet2 is unrelated to their antipiracy efforts. "This
particular partnership," she said, "is more of an opportunity for us to
have a technology testing ground." The groups plan to collaborate with
the Internet2 community to study distribution and digital rights
management technologies for networks faster than today's commercial Internet.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 September 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/09/2005091202t.htm
FBI LOSES ROUND ONE
[Interesting that the URL mentions "library" but the words do not.]
A federal judge has handed the FBI a preliminary defeat in its efforts
to continue to suppress information about an investigation of a
Connecticut institution. The institution, whose identity has been kept
confidential under the terms of the USA PATRIOT Act, and the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the FBI for the right to disclose the
institution's identity. Judge Janet C. Hall agreed with the
plaintiffs, saying that under the FBI's position, "the very people who
might have information regarding investigative abuses and overreaching
are peremptorily prevented from sharing that information with the
public." Hall did grant a stay of her ruling, however, giving federal
authorities until September 20 to try to persuade the Court of Appeals
to overturn the ruling. If the appeals court takes no action by then,
the plaintiffs are free to disclose the institution's identity.
Watching the case closely are groups critical of the PATRIOT Act, who
have long argued that the law grants federal authorities excessive
investigative powers at the expense of civil liberties.
New York Times, 10 September 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/nyregion/10library.html
DIGITAL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION OPENS IN UK
Modeled on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in the United
States, a new organization is being launched in the United Kingdom to
protect the rights of users of digital resources. According to the Web
site of the Open Rights Group (ORG), the group will work to "vigorously
defend our digital civil liberties, ensuring that the our hard-won
freedoms are not taken away simply because they've moved to the
digital world." Suw Charman, one of the group's co-founders, said that
ORG intends not to replace but to work alongside organizations with
similar goals, of which several already exist in the United Kingdom and
Europe, including the Campaign for Digital Rights, the Foundation for
Information Policy Research, and the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure. Officials from the rights group Citizens Online
expressed skepticism that ORG efforts would be appropriately inclusive.
Citizens Online worried that ORG's focus would be "middle class"
issues, ignoring technology issues concerning people with disabilities
and the digital divide.
BBC, 9 September 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4225938.stm
KATRINA BOOSTS ONLINE EDUCATION
Educators at all levels--from elementary through college--are trying to
figure out how to accommodate the estimated 200,000 students from the
Gulf states who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and some see
the circumstances as a prime opportunity for online education to prove
its worth. Advocates of online learning are working to get federal
authorities to relax rules governing things ranging from obtaining
teacher certification to using public funds to support online schools.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has committed $1.1 million to the Sloan
Consortium, an organization that works to improve the quality of online
instruction, to provide space for 10,000 students in its program. A
number of online programs for elementary and secondary students are
hoping to persuade government officials to allow public funds to be
used by displaced students in online programs. Julie Young, chief
executive of the Florida Virtual School, one of the nation's largest
online public schools, said, "It's going to be an opportunity to show
the power of online learning." Critics said online programs are a poor
substitute for in-class learning. Nat LaCour, secretary general of the
American Federation of Teachers, said displaced students "need to be in
classrooms with teachers who can provide nurturing experiences."
Wall Street Journal, 9 September 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112622247296335918,00.html
FEDS AWARD NATIONAL ARCHIVE CONTRACT
The federal government will spend $308 million to create a national
electronic archive that Allen Weinstein, the archivist of the United
States, said will be of significant value to academic researchers.
Weinstein, a former history professor, said the Electronic Records
Archives (ERA) will store and make available all federal electronic
documents, which otherwise could disappear entirely or at least be very
difficult to locate. The federal government is increasingly creating
documents online in electronic format, and the ERA is vital in
preserving them, said Weinstein. The ERA, which is expected to debut in
2008 and be complete by 2011, could also serve as a model for colleges
and universities that create their own digital archive systems,
according to Weinstein. Rick Barry, a management consultant in archives
and information management, said that the archive itself will not solve
the problem of preservation. Bureaucratic and cultural problems must
also be overcome, he said.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 September 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/09/2005090901t.htm
THIRTEEN COUNTRIES GET BEHIND OPEN STANDARDS
Government officials from 13 countries have developed a report to the
World Bank on economic growth, efficiency, and innovation in which they
argue for the establishment of open technology standards. The report is
quick to point out that open standards are not synonymous with open
source, in which source code is shared and can be modified by anyone.
The open-standards movement advocates defining a set of standards,
available to anyone, that allow various applications, whether
proprietary or open source, to exchange information. The report is the
product of a project led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society
at the Harvard Law School. According to Charles R. Nesson, law
professor at Harvard and founder of the Berkman Center, the goal of the
report is to make a "rational business case for having a broad base of
open technology standards." The report urges governments to "mandate
technology choice, not software development models."
New York Times, 9 September 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/technology/09open.html
TUTORING ONLINE, OVERSEAS
Online tutoring services, which typically offer cost and scheduling
advantages over local programs, have begun outsourcing some tutoring
positions. Although some online tutoring companies that serve the U.S.
market limit tutors to people living in North America, some now employ
tutors in countries including India, South Africa, the Philippines, and
Chile. As with other examples of outsourcing, the primary motivation is
cost: Growing Stars, a California-based tutoring company, charges $30
an hour for U.S.-based tutors and $20 an hour for tutors in India, who
are paid the equivalent of $230 per month. Burck Smith, chief executive
and co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based online tutoring company
SmarThinking, said his company has seen demand grow by 50 percent over
the past few years, and the company signed 20 new clients, including
high schools and colleges, for services this fall. Critics of online
tutoring argue that there is already little oversight to such programs,
resulting in questionable quality, and that using tutors from overseas
only serves to make monitoring even more difficult.
New York Times, 7 September 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/education/07tutor.html
CA HOPS ON THE OPEN SOURCE BANDWAGON
Following IBM's lead, Computer Associates International (CA) has
announced that it will allow open source developers to use 14 of its
patents free of charge. Earlier this year, IBM, which has been one of
the strongest corporate backers of open source technology, said it
would forgo royalties on 500 of its patents. The CA patents that will
be offered address application development, data analytics, and systems
management. CA also announced an agreement with IBM under which the two
companies will exchange license rights. According to Mark Barrenechea,
executive vice president of technology strategy and chief technology
architect at CA, the deal will give customers easier access to the
range of intellectual property available without charge.
ZDNet, 7 September 2005
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5852500.html
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***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Racism Denied At All Levels Of Government. . .but. . . .
1. White People "Found" Food, Black People "Looted Food"
Even as far away as Zimbabwe, the news is reporting that
two pictures from the Associated Press {?} contrasted in
print the racism of the American press, as a white woman
was portrayed as having "found food," while a picture of
of a black man is portrayed as having "looted" food.
Reports of this are popping up in a wide variety of news
sources, but they are usually comments rather than whole
reports from the news sources, comments from readers, or
from distant news services, but not the major US media.
2. Crowds Of Mostly Black New Orleans Refugees Turned
Back By Police At The Majority White City Of Gretna
Crowds of refugees from the New Orleans Superdome and
Convention Center area were stopped by Gretna police,
as shots were fired, apparently as warnings by police
of the majority white City of Gretna, which houses an
expressway known as the Crescent City Connector which
is one of the major arteries out of New Orleans. The
Crescent City Connector was one of the only roads the
hurricane left completely open, and many evacuees say
they were told to leave New Orleans that way; sources
indicate this was at the direction of Governor Blanco.
However, the Gretna City Police Chief said:
"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down."
"We shut down the bridge," since Gretna was "a closed and
secure location" since before the storm hit."
"There was no food, water or shelter."
"We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people."
"If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New
Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."
These comments were made by Arthur Lawson, Police Chief of
the City of Gretna United Press International.
Jefferson Parrish and Bridge Police assisted in the shut
down of the three major access points to stop foot traffic
trying to flee across the west bank of the river.
Quoting The State of Louisiana's Disaster Plan:
"The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles.
School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles
provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation
for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating."
No mention is made of what to do about those for whom no transportation
is available. . .those were obviously beneath the radar scope of planning.
Some of the less censored headlines:
"Racist police blocked bridge and forced evacuees back at gunpoint."
"Cops trapped survivors in New Orleans"
"On the Edge Without an Exit" The Los Angeles Times
Somehow it seems that those farthest from the situation
are the only ones willing to state what is obvious locally.
*
FEMA Never Intended Thousands Of Imported Firefighters To Fight Fires
Perhaps as many as 4,000 firefighters have been anxiously sitting on
their hands for over a week as they have been locked away from action
for which they have been trained by administrators who have little or
no training in handling emergency situations. Many administrators are
not commenting, while others say that these firefighters are being used
solely for "community outreach" since they have not been "cleared" for
the actual purpose they were trained for by unadept administrators,
who sent for no background checks and now say they are required.
Source: CBS 9/12/05
[Also see The Dayton Daily News ?]
*
40 Died In A Hospital, There Was No Evacuation Plan For Them.
*
Palestinians Burn Gaza Synagogues
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
I supposed the strangest words of the week were those NOT heard,
as NBC censored Kanye West's comments as the news went from the
East Coast to the West Coast. . .his picture was included, but a
"18 second gap" replaced his commentary.
Some sources reported that Kanye West's microphone didn't work,
but those one the earlier East Coast verson of the NBC news and
most obviously Jon Stewart, noticed the difference and reported
that the news had been censored in transit.
Here is the quote as it is being referenced:
"If you see a black family it's looting,
but if it's a white family they are looking for food.
George Bush doesn't care about black people."
*
Oxford English Dictionary, or Bullchevy English Dictionary?
The OED fake: Another Strange Word of the Week:
"esquivalience"
As you may have heard as one of the unfounded urban legends,
but which turn out to be true, at least the fiction is fact,
many publications, perhaps even most of those of the Fortune
500 type of publishers, contain intentional errors--ERRORS!
You may have heard of maps either containing locations never
in existence or in the wrong place, but those at least maybe
were legally required for such errors to be around the edges
and NOT in the "field of play," so that a person using error
ridden maps for the intended purpose, the land or sea named,
would not get into trouble using them for directions. Since
I am originally from a seaport, I am personally aware of map
laws that require a rather large red disclaimer on every one
of the maps stating that these sea charts are NOT navigation
tools, but merely recreational items. Much as software were
once labeled as not merchantable, meaning good for nothing.
At any rate, Oxford has admitted, though under some cloud of
smoke, that the New Oxford English Dictionary does, in fact,
contain intentional errors, which reduces their standing for
this act to the point of having been caught out, and made to
stand in the corner wearing a dunce cap.
I presume next time they will "fingerprint" their work in an
even less discoverable manner, in the hopes not to be caught
out so soon next time around. I wonder if they didn't think
to do it in a less obvious manner, such as varying commas or
periods or semi-colons in a coded manner? Thus the CONTENTS
of their dictionary would be accurate, while the FORM was an
investigative tool as accurate as a fingerprint.
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
Comments On How The Katrina Relief Efforts Are Going:
Laura Bush: "very very well."
VP Dick Cheney: "extremely well."
President Bush: the situations in Iran and New Orleans are going well.
[Of course, this stance was reversed yesterday when President Bush
finally admitted that things were not going very well and that he
was taking responsibility for that.]
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Keep watching China, India and Indonesia for economic growth.
*QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If you see a black family it's looting,
but if it's a white family they are looking for food.
George Bush doesn't care about black people."
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
5/8 of Bush's emergency management appointees had no experience,
were simply pork barrel jobs for his campaign workers.
Michael Brown was simply the college roommate of the original
FEMA chief, not other recommendation or expertise, not even a
real job on his resume, other than the Arabian Horse group.
*
Meat consumption in China us up 400% in 20 years.
*
One Ohio high school was reported to have 63% of the girls pregnant.
*
In some communities blacks are 9 times as likely to be pulled over
for traffic stops than are whites.
A film crew trying to record such statistics locally was stopped
by the police and taken to court.
*
Nearly 3/4 of a million dollars for 30 second American Idol ad!
About $600,000 for 30 seconds on Desperate Housewives.
The average for all prime time shows: $150,000.
***
POEM OF THE WEEK
Tonight is hard to get in touch with my thoughts
as my eyelids are heavy with a dreamless sleep
in which I feel I am floating like a feather
dettached from the wings of a mother swan
who once knew about a lake,
and how the vivid waters felt to the touch
but then she got bored, took off
and learned about the lighness of air,
like the angels who sit on my eyelids tonight
Alas, I must be dreaming of flight
while I cry myself to sleep under the starry skies
of your eyes.
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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