[gweekly] Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Aug 23 09:31:11 PDT 2006
pt1a3.806
pt1b3.806
Weekly_August_23.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, August 23, 2006 PT1***
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971*******
For now I am leaving PT1a and PT1b combined.
Please also let me know if you think these Newsletters are a waste of time or
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Thanks!
Michael
*
We are interested in increasing the "SF" available at Project Gutenberg of
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Please see our WANTED list at http://gutenberg.net.au/wanted.html for
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Editor's comments appear in [brackets].
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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
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones*
20,790 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
19,065 Project Gutenberg US [+ 45] [NOT Including PG Australia]
1,125 Australian eBooks [+ 55] [NOT Included in above line]
330 Gutenberg Europe [+ 0] [NOT Included in above lines]
370 PG PrePrint Site [+ 0] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
20,890 Grand Total [+100]
20,887 [by hand count] [+100]
[Please note we have several counting methods,
and they often differ by several book that we
have to hunt down by hand to reconcile.]
[Pleast note there is some duplication between
these various collections. Volunteers needed
to take these duplications into account.]
~9% of the way from 20,000 to 30,000
75,000+ eBooks at the PG Consortia Center
http://www.gutenberg.cc
[Please note that the four collections totals are eBooks that originated
as created, edited, proofread, formatted, etc., by Project Gutenberg and
its 50,000 volunteers, while the Project Gutenberg Consortia Center with
75,000+ eBooks contains entire eBook collections from other sources, all
the production statistics given here are for some 20,000+ eBooks created
by the various teams of Project Gutenberg volunteers, for which we share
the responsibility of maintaining. The Consortia Center eBooks were and
are the responsibility of the donating eLibraries, and we would be happy
to forward any suggestions for correction to those eLibraries, but those
eBooks must be edited by the donating parties, as per their requests.]
*
17,822 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~264 eBooks per Month for ~67.50 Months
2,742 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
35 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
8,945 totAl from Distributed Proofreaders
Since October, 2000 [Details in PT1B]
[Currently over 36,000 DP volunteers]
[Note, PGDP mostly included in US eBooks]
[Note, PGEU has its own Distributed Proofreaders
whose total closely matches their grand total]
We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Averaged ~248 eBooks Per Month In 2005
[Including PG Australia]
We Are Averaging ~366 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
[Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints]
All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 83 eBooks Per Week In 2006
100 This Week
97 Last Week
271 This Month [Aug]
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~12.5 years from Jan. 1994 to Jun. 2006 to go from 100 to 20,100
It took ~32 months, from 2003 to 2006 for our last 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~2.8 years from Oct. 2003 to Jun. 2006 from 10,000 to 20,000
Not counting the addition of The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center
*
[Daily PrePrints stats at http://preprints.readingroo.ms/]
Please note that sometimes it takes a few weeks for entire
collections to fully appear in the PrePrints Section, thus
the count sometimes jumps by a large number when the files
are eventually completed and added in. Also note that the
PrePrint files are just that, PrePrints, and thus may move
later to other locations, including the main collection or
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center, etc. For example,
on June 14, 200 WAP compatible cell phone eBooks appeared,
and will likely be moved to other collection points later.
The entire process of working out the details just to send
them to the PrePrints Section took well over a month.
Even with the speeded up process of the PrePrints Section,
it still takes a certain amount of time to collect and put
such a large collection online in a proper manner.
*
***Introduction
[Ignore for the moment]
[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 bene
that PT1 is now being sent 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
FREE INTERNET REFERENCE SITE
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***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***
pt1a3.806
pt1b3.806
Weekly_August_23.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, August 23, 2006 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
***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
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which now indexes 24,000 books available free online, including all
PG(US) & PG(Aus)'s books, along with some basic date information
about them and their authors where you can find more.
Plus many books not available on line, a good place to search
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*
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 07.50 months of this year, PG produced 2,742 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to May 2001 to produce our first 2,742 eBooks!
That's 33 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 Years!!!
100 New eBooks This Week
97 New eBooks Last Week
271 New eBooks This Month [Jul]
366 Average Per Month in 2006
266 Average Per Month in 2005 Counting 216 PGEu
248 Average Per Month in 2005 Not Counting PGEu
336 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
2742 New eBooks in 2006
3186 New eBooks in 2005 Counting 216 PGeu
> 2970 New eBooks in 2005 Not Counting PGEu
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
17,822 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 67.50 Months!
~264 books per month!
20,890 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
17,020 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,870 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
1,125 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
[This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted
at the U.S. site: www.gutenberg.org ]
330 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Europe
370 Items in Project Gutenberg PrePrints
~75,000+ Project Gutenberg Consortia Center
http://www.gutenberg.cc
You may also want to look at Project Runeberg [Scandinavian]
http://runeberg.org
*
Project Gutenberg began operation on July 4, 1971
Project Runeberg began operation on December 13, 1992
Distributed Proofreaders began October 22, 2000
[Became an official PG-US site in 2002]
Project Gutenberg of Australia began in August, 2001
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center started in 1997]
[Became an official PG-US site in 2003]
Project Gutenberg of Europe started January 12, 2004
[Posted first books February 26, when we met in Brussels
to address people at the European Union Parliament.
Project Gutenberg PrePrints Started January 25, 2006
http://preprints.readingroo.ms
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PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
8,945 Books to Project Gutenberg.
35 added this week.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php
*
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
The PGCC collection at http://www.gutenberg.cc has doubled
in size from the listings below, but we don't have exactly
matching collection sizes yet for a new breakdown.
The number of individual eBooks now exceeds 75,000.
*
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings
of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as:
[This list is being updated as the moment, you can get
the entire list on the collections pages at gutenberg.cc]
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
Renascence 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
*
The new overall collection size, which has reduced the
need to account for duplications and eBooks with files
for each chapter, etc.
75,000+ Unique eBooks
***
Please also note that over 25,000 eBooks are listed via
The Online Books Page, of which over 6,300 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 #231 of 2006
This Completes Week #33 and Month #07.50 [364 days this year]
133 Days/21 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
9,110 Books To Go To #30,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
83 Weekly Average in 2006
61 Weekly Average in 2005 [Counting 216 PGEu]
57 Weekly Average in 2005 [Not Counting PGEu]
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
42 Only ~45 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers List
[Used to be well over 100]
[This listing usually from the previous week]
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***
Statistical Review
In the 33 weeks of this year, we have produced 2742 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 07/01 to produce our FIRST 2742 eBooks!!!
That's 33 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #2742
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 are now in new catalog format]
The Cenci, by Alexandre Dumas, Pere 2742
The Borgias, by Alexandre Dumas, Pere 2741
(**The 18 volumes listed above comprise "Celebrated Crimes" by Dumas, Pere**)
Jul 2001 More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II[Darwin13][2mlcdxxx.xxx] 2740
Jul 2001 More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I[Darwin#12][1mlcdxxx.xxx] 2739
[Pending / Unfilled / Unknown] 2738*
Jul 2001 A Grandpa's Notebook. by Meyer Moldeven (C)2000 [grnpaxxx.xxx] 2737C
The Champdoce Mystery, by Emile Gaboriau 2736
(Note: Sequel to #2451)
Jul 2001 The Golden Dog, by William Kirby [?ggldxxx.xxx] 2735
[Alternate Title: Le Chien d'Or]
Jul 2001 Gwaith Twm o'r Nant (Cyfrol II.) [In Welsh] [twmntxxx.xxx] 2734
[Title AKA: The Works of Twm o'r Nant (Volume II)] [Language: Welsh]
Jul 2001 Romano Lavo-Lil, by George Borrow [Geo. Borrow #8][rmlavxxx.xxx] 2733
[Alternate Titles: Romany Dictionary; Gypsy Dictionary]
Jul 2001 Ballads, by William Makepeace Thackeray [WMT #20][?bwmtxxx.xxx] 2732
The Christmas Books, by William Makepeace Thackeray 2731
[Author Note: written under the pseudonym M. A. Titmarsh]
Long Odds, by H. Rider Haggard 2730
(See also #1918)
Jul 2001 A Tale of Three Lions, by H. Rider[HR Haggard #16][3lionxxx.xxx] 2729
Hunter Quatermain's Story, by H. Rider Haggard 2728
Allan's Wife, by H. Rider Haggard 2727
Jul 2001 Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott [LM Alcott #3][8csnsxxx.xxx] 2726
Jul 2001 Red Pepper Burns, by Grace S. Richmond [rpbrnxxx.xxx] 2725
Jul 2001 Theodore Roosevelt and His Times by Harold Howland[trtmsxxx.xxx] 2724
[Title: Theodore Roosevelt and His Times, a Chronicle of the
Progressive Movement]
A First Family of Tasajara, by Bret Harte 2723
Morning Star, by H. Rider Haggard 2722
Eric Brighteyes, by H. Rider Haggard 2721
Jul 2001 The Pension Beaurepas, by Henry James [James #35][penbrxxx.xxx] 2720
Jul 2001 Greville Fane, by Henry James [Henry James #34][gfanexxx.xxx] 2719
Jul 2001 The Chaperon, by Henry James [Henry James #33][chprnxxx.xxx] 2718
Jul 2001 Nona Vincent, by Henry James [Henry James #32][nonavxxx.xxx] 2717
Jul 2001 Sir Dominick Ferrand, by Henry James [James #31][frrndxxx.xxx] 2716
Jul 2001 The Real Thing, by Henry James [Henry James #30][rlthgxxx.xxx] 2715
Jul 2001 Long Live the King, by Mary Roberts Rinehart [#15][llkngxxx.xxx] 2714
Maiwa's Revenge, by H. Rider Haggard 2713
[Subtitle: The War of the Little Hand]
A Drift from Redwood Camp, by Bret Harte 2712
A Phyllis of the Sierras, by Bret Harte 2711
Jul 2001 Louise de la Valliere, by Alexandre Dumas, Pere #9[luisexxx.xxx] 2710
(Note: We are releasing these as BOTH xxxxx10.txt AND xxxxx10h.htm and
in zip files. Please see the introduction which describes the various
books of this title, and how the various editions were published, and
how they have been named, and in what order to read them.)
Jul 2001 The Man Who Was Afraid, by Maxim Gorky [Gorky #3][fomagxxx.xxx] 2709
[AKA: Foma Gordeev/Gordyeeff]
Columba, by Prosper Merimee 2708
[Trans.: Mary Loyd]
Jul 2001 The History of Herodotus V1 by Herodotus/ Macaulay[1hofhxxx.xxx] 2707
[Tr.: G. C. Macaulay] (See also: see #2456 for Vol. 2)
/
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet?
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,536,460,759 that would be 20,890 x 65,364,608 = ~1.37 Trillion !!!
With 20,890 eBooks online as of August 23, 2006 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.73 from each book.
[1% world population x #eBooks] 65,364,608 x 20,890 x $.73 = ~$1 Trillion
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
[By the way, the US "popclock" is about to turn to 300 million people.]
[Just turned 299.5 million this week!]
A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.48 Value Per Book To 100 Million
With 20,8790 eBooks online as of August 23, 2006 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.48 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.59 when we had 17,020 eBooks a year ago.
Our Target Audience Is 1.5% Of The World Population = ~100,000,000 people.
Next Decade's Target: 15% Of The world Population = 1,000,000,000 people.
At 20,890 eBooks in 35 Years and 01.50 Months We Averaged
595 Per Year
50 Per Month
1.63 Per Day
At 2742 eBooks Done In The 231 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
11.9 Per Day
83 per Week
366 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.
However, for those keeping track of how quickly the U.S. reaches a
300 million population level, and who noticed the passing of 298M,
just two weeks ago. . .the U.S. is already 1/6 the way to 299M, so
it will probably be 10 more weeks to 299M and 22 more to 300M.
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].
*
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 4th was
the first Wednesday of 2006, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2005 and began the production year of 2006 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]
SANDISK MP3 PLAYER DOUBLES STORAGE OF IPOD NANO
SanDisk has introduced the Sansa e280, a flash-based MP3 player with
twice the storage capability of Apple's iPod nano, in an attempt to
gain market share against Apple Computer. The new player includes 8
gigabytes of flash memory and an optional 2 GB microSD card. The price
of the 4 GB iPod nano is $249, almost the same as the 10 GB Sansa e280
at $249.99. The new device also comes with a digital FM tuner to record
and store songs, photo display, video playback, a voice recorder, and a
user-replaceable lithium battery.
Red Herring, 21 August 2006
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=18057&hed=SanDisk+Takes+on+iPod
PENN STATE ADOPTS TEXT MESSAGES TO STUDENTS
Pennsylvania State university will launch a text-messaging wireless
service called PSUTXT today as an expansion of Penn State Live, a news
service with 360,000 subscribers. The university plans to use the
service to send text messages of news alerts to mobile devices.
Registered users can sign up for short message service (SMS) text
messages on campus emergencies, sports, and concert information. Topics
will expand as users indicate an interest in other types of
information. PSUTXT targets Penn State students, faculty, and staff,
although anyone may subscribe.
CNET, 16 August 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6106302.html
EU ORDERS DEUTSCHE TELEKOM TO SHARE NETWORK
The European Commission (EC) supported German regulators who ordered
Deutsche Telekom AG to open its high-speed Internet networks to
competitors. As a result of the order, the company must permit
competitors to buy access on its broadband network to offer their own
services to end users. German regulators will have advance approval of
the price charged. Past refusals to grant access forced the company's
business rivals to build their own networks, effectively preventing
them from operating outside cities and causing higher Internet prices
in rural areas, according to the EC.
Wall Street Journal, 21 August 2006
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115616823663141011.html
while in the US. . . .
APPEALS COURT SUPPORTS FCC RULE ON HIGH-SPEED LINES
A federal appeals court has turned down an appeal of a decision by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that exempted certain kinds of
telecom lines from regulations that require companies to lease access
to rivals. A law passed in 1996 forces telecom companies to unbundle
local phone networks and allow competitors to buy access to them. The
FCC ruled that this requirement should not apply to certain lines,
including new fiber-optic lines to residential customers, because
requiring such sharing would discourage companies from making
investments in this kind of infrastructure. EarthLink challenged the
ruling, but the appeals court sided with the FCC, giving a boost to
companies including AT&T and Verizon.
Wall Street Journal, 16 August 2006
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115569776929237003.html
MICROSOFT REPAIRS SECURITY PATCH
Microsoft announced that it has fixed a bug in the MS06-040 Windows
Server services update, a critical security patch. The bug affected
programs that use large amounts of memory on some versions of Windows.
Although the bug did not affect most Windows systems, it did cause
problems in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and the 64-bit version of
Windows XP Professional Edition. The company's fix for the problem is
available online.
PCWorld, 21 August 2006
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126839-c,windowsbugs/article.html
and. . . .
MS WINDOWS FLAWS AGAIN TARGETED BY HACKERS
Security companies have identified a new worm circulating that seeks to
take advantage of a flaw in the Windows operating system and allows
hackers to use infected computers to send spam. Earlier this month,
Microsoft issued a patch for 23 vulnerabilities, including the one that
the new worm uses. Because the patch has only been available for a
week, however, experts said many computers are likely still at risk for
the malicious code. Infected computers can be used as spam
proxies--computers that send millions of junk e-mails on behalf of
spammers. Many spammers are resorting to this sort of approach because
ISPs are increasingly unwilling to host such e-mail campaigns.
BBC, 16 August 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4797949.stm
and. . . .
MS SECURITY UPDATE NEEDS AN UPDATE
Microsoft acknowledged that a patch issued earlier this month for
significant flaws in its operating system has led to new problems for
some users. Computers that installed the August patch on Windows 2000
or Windows XP machines with Service Pack 1 and Internet Explorer 6 are
experiencing browser crashes when they visit Web sites that use HTTP
1.1 and compression. Fred Dunn, a systems administrator at the
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said that at
his institution, computers with the patch are crashing when users
access pages in PeopleSoft applications. The workaround, he said, is to
disable the compression in the PeopleSoft applications, which slows
performance considerably. Microsoft said that on August 22 it would
issue a new patch to replace the patch that is causing these problems.
ZDNet, 16 August 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6106039.html
ENCRYPTION FOR MOBILE PHONES
A British company said it has developed technology that encrypts
transmissions on cell phones, allowing users to make calls with
confidence that their conversations cannot be intercepted. One Day
Mobile reportedly developed the technology with German company Safe.com
and with the military. With the software, which must be installed on
cell phones, users can decide which of their calls will be encrypted.
Encrypted calls are sent over the data network, however, rather than
the voice network, which can result in decreased performance. Voice
networks are built to ensure smooth and fast transmission, but using
the data network to transfer voice traffic can be slower and bumpier
and can impose delays.
The Register, 16 August 2006
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/16/mobile_encryption/
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
*QUOTATION OF THE WEEK
"We have united our enemies,
and divided our friends."
Multiple sources
/
"Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of
'emergency'. It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini.
In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe,
and 'emergency' became the justification of the subsequent steps.
This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement
that demagoguery attains." ---Herbert Hoover
*STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
1/8 of the official population of the United States
is composed of immigrants.
/
President White of the University of Illinois says that colleges
are dropping the ball by graduating only 28% of of Americans for
whom 85% have already managed a high school diploma. He said at
the opening of the Fall semester than government should spend an
increasing amount on education to fill this gap.
Let's look into these statistics a little more:
28% / 85% = ~1/3 of all high school students graduate college.
When I was a kid the percentage of college degress was only some
half as much of the total population. . .~14%, so I would say it
is obvious that college plays an ever incrasing role in lives of
Americans. . .twice as much as it used to, in fact.
However, official US Adult Literacy statistics show that about a
half of all adult Americans would be challenged in reading this,
much less by reading all the materials for a college degree.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) released by the
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), found little
change between 1992 and 2003 in adults' ability to read and
understand sentences and paragraphs or to understand documents
such as job applications.
December 15, 2005 Contacts: Mike Bowler, (202) 219-1662
or David Thomas, (202)401-1576
If you read far enough in their documents, and add up the totals
they refuse to give you outright, you will see that just about a
half of US Adults could be expected to read such materials while
the other half would be challenged to do so.
As with so many other negative government statistics, these were
presented in a manner that diguised their actual meaning.
However, even more negative is the fact that 85% get high school
diplomas, while only about half of them can read at satisfactory
high school graduation levels.
[I suppose this could also qualify for the doublespeak section.]
*DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
"Hezbollah suffered defeat."
Multiple sources
MORE DOUBLESPEAK
Multiple sources
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
There will be another war between Israel and Lebanon,
simply because no one will stop them.
The Iraq War will continue until officials finally
manage to admit it is another viet Nam.
Or, even more unlikely, until there is a real plan.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
[I think the inflation/growth statistics in the news
were plenty odd enough. However, I should add that
manufacturing costs rose sharply around the world,
up 1.1% in the UK in July alone, though those have
not yet reached the consumer markets.]
*
By the way, for those interested, the official U.S. population
estimates just passed 298 million, though many say estimations
of this nature leave out as much as 5% of the population, with
the obvious exclusion of the 11-12 million immigrant workers
now being mentioned so much in the news.
Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries.
[This one is getting a little out of date, as the US population
is obviously no longer 6% of the world. In fact, rounding to the
nearest percent, the US will soon fall from 5% to 4%.]
"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 America
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.
*
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