*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, March 16, 2005 PT1* *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971****** Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com HEADLINE NEWS! THE MAGNA CARTA IS DEAD! LONG LIVE ANTI-TERRORISM! The Magna Carta, the foundation of democracy and human rights, for about 800 years, and chosen as Project Gutenberg's 10,000th eBook selection, has just been voided by Parliament in London. Civil rights expressly granted now by over 100 governments around the world have just now been overthrown by their founding country in an election year bid by various parties and coalitions of the U. K. Parliament, and many predict that such rights will now continue to disappear in what is generally known as "domino effect." Countries that previously condemed and outlawed such powers on the general principles of freedom and democracy became terrorist regimes by their own definitions after 9/11, and these practices were finally ruled as illegal as a three judge panel had finally ruled three months ago that that eight foreign terror suspects has been illegally imprisoned in violation of human rights laws. However, with a Parliamentary election expected in two months, both the Conservative and Labour parties wanted to appear very tough on terrorism, even to the point of being publicly chastised for debasing the very foundations of their country to do so. Britain's lower house passed just such a bill four times, and it was defeated four times in the upper house in marathon sessions that eventually lasted well over 24 hours. However, in the end, when all was said and done, the civil rights of humanity were dealt a severe blow by the very country who made them in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago. After years in prison without being charged, these eight are now still under arrest, though now it is a "house arrest" under which they are confined from 7PM to 7AM and report to the government any time they enter or leave the house, even though they had already been forced to wear electronic monitor tags that tell goverment agents where they are at any given moment. In addition, these eight are not allowed at any gatherings other than standard prayers at their mosques, or to have any contact with the outside world from home via cell phones, the Internet, etc. No visitors are allowed other than lawyers, doctors, children, etc., other than someone providing goods or services. Only one bank account is allowed per person, to be severely monitored by the government. Even the most staunch supporters of giving away the public's freedom to do battle with terrorism fear that this is all just electioneering on the parts of those passing this law, as it would appear prisoners were being held without rights long before 9/11, just not with quite so much publicity. [The Irish Republicans, for example.] There are serious questions as to how long such a law can remain in existence in a democracy, and how long a democracy can remain under such law. This is one issue that is going to come back to haunt its authors. * HOT REQUESTS Darwin!!! Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers. * Project Gutenberg of Canada needs your help! Please email: pgcanada@lists.pglaf.org To subscribe to the pgcanada list, please visit: http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/pgcanada * 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! * TABLE OF CONTENTS [Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.] *eBook Milestones *Introduction *Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements *Continuing Requests and Announcements *Progress Report *Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report *Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report *Permanent Requests For Assistance: *Donation Information *Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections *Mirror Site Information *Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks *Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet? *Flashback *Weekly eBook update: This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter Corrections in separate section 2 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 85 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 15,767 eBooks As Of Today!!! 12,705 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Produced 811 eBooks in 2005 We Are ~57% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 We are ~15% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000 4,233 to go to 20,000!!! We have now averaged ~468 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971 We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging About 322 books Per Month This Year We Are Averaging About 81 eBooks Per Week This Year 87 This Week 68 Last Week [corrected from 66] It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000 * ***Introduction [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. 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That's 10 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 Years! 87 New eBooks This Week 68 New eBooks Last Week 155 New eBooks This Month [Mar] 324 Average Per Month in 2005 336 Average Per Month in 2004 355 Average Per Month in 2003 203 Average Per Month in 2002 103 Average Per Month in 2001 811 New eBooks in 2005 4049 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 12705 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 50.50 Months! About 252 books per month 15,767 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 11,912 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 3,855 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 425 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia * PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE: For more complete DP statistics, visit: http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php Here is a snapshot from today: Yesterday's Goal: 6,150 pages Yesterday's Total: 6,804 pages Completed Projects: Apr 2004 - 277 May 2004 - 236 Jun 2004 - 232 Jul 2004 - 233 Aug 2004 - 220 Sep 2004 - 182 Oct 2004 - 263 Nov 2004 - 280 Dec 2004 - 287 Jan 2005 - 248 Feb 2005 - 323 Mar 2005 - 152 [We need a volunteer to do the figures George was compiling if those are to be continued. We can help you get started.] * Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog. eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists. 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PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as: Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files eBooks@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 *** Today Is Day #70 of 2005 This Completes Week #10 and Month #02.50 [364 days this year] 294 Days/46 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 4,233 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 81 Weekly Average in 2005 78 Weekly Average in 2004 79 Weekly Average in 2003 47 Weekly Average in 2002 24 Weekly Average in 2001 41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list [Used to be well over 100] *** Permanent Requests For Assistance: DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES Thanks to very good recent publicity, the Distributed Proofreading project has greatly accelerated its pace. 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Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #809 Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ### A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright Feb 1997 Speeches: Literary & Social by Charles Dickens[20][dslasxxx.xxx] 824 Feb 1997 The Life of St. Declan of Ardmore [stdecxxx.xxx] 823 Feb 1997 The Tarn of Eternity, by Frank Tymon [etarnxxx.xxx] 822C Feb 1997 Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens [Dickens # 19] [dombyxxx.xxx] 821 Feb 1997 Edison, His Life and Inventions, by Dyer & Martin [ehlaixxx.xxx] 820 Feb 1997 The History of the Telephone, by Herbert N. Casson[thottxxx.xxx] 819 Feb 1997 The Aeroplane Speaks, by H. Barber [R.F. Corps] [arspkxxx.xxx] 818 Feb 1997 The Jargon File, 4.0.0, by various editors [jarg400x.xxx] 817 Feb 1997 Democracy In America, Alexis de Toqueville Vol 2 [2dinaxxx.xxx] 816 Feb 1997 Democracy In America, Alexis de Toqueville Vol 1 [1dinaxxx.xxx] 815 Feb 1997 Hunting Sketches, by Anthony Trollope [Trollope#2][hntskxxx.xxx] 814 Feb 1997 Reminiscences of Tolstoy, by Ilya Tolstoy[his son][rtlstxxx.xxx] 813 Feb 1997 Catalan's Constant to 1.5M Places [see#15][math18][ctcstxxa.xxx] 812 Feb 1997 Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, Newer Edition[drfstaxx.xxx] 811 [Title: The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus; From the Quarto of 1616] [Ed: Alexander Dyce] Feb 1997 George Silverman's Explanation/Charles Dickens[18][gsilxxxx.xxx] 810 Feb 1997 Holiday Romance, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #17] [hldrmxxx.xxx] 809 Feb 1997 The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan [G#2] [cpogsxxx.xxx] 808 Feb 1997 Hunted Down, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #16] [hntdnxxx.xxx] 807 Feb 1997 Philoktetes, by Sophocles, Trans. Gregory McNamee [phlokxxx.xxx] 806 Feb 1997 This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald [#1][tsparxxx.xxx] 805 Feb 1997 A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne [senjrxxx.xxx] 804 [The Following eBooks Were The First Project Gutebnerg eBooks In French] Feb 1997 La Duchesse de Palliano, by Stendhal[in French]#6][8plnoxxx.xxx] 803 Feb 1997 Vittoria Accoramboni, by Stendhal [in French] #5][8vtraxxx.xxx] 802 Feb 1997 Les Cenci by Stendhal[Marie-Henri Beyle][French#4][8cncixxx.xxx] 801 Jan 1997 Tour Du Mond 80 Jours [in French] by Jules Verne#5[?80jrxxx.xxx] 800 Jan 1997 De La Terre a La Lune [in French] by Jules Verne#4[?lunexxx.xxx] 799 Jan 1997 Le Rouge et Le Noir, by Stendhal [in French] #3[8rougxxx.xxx] 798 Jan 1997 L'Abbesse de Castro etc, by Stendhal[in French] #2[8castxxx.xxx] 797 Jan 1997 La Chartreuse de Parme, Stendhal [French#1][?parmxxx.xxx] 796 * Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? With 15,767 eBooks online as of March 16, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.99 from each book. 1% of the world population is 64,247,806 x 15,765 x $.99 = $1+ trillion With 15,767 eBooks online as of March 16, 2005 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.63 from each book, This "cost" is down from about $.84 when we had 11,912 eBooks a year ago. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! At 15,767 eBooks in 33 Years and 08.50 Months We Averaged ~468 Per Year 39.0 Per Month 1.28 Per Day At 811 eBooks Done In The 70 Days Of 2005 We Averaged 11.6 Per Day 81 Per Week 322 Per Month The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks' production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon, starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 5th was the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. *** *Headline News from Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] CHICAGO LOOKS AT CITY-WIDE WI-FI Officials in Chicago have authorized a study of the feasibility of a city-wide wireless network, despite a bill in the state legislature that would ban municipalities from acting as utilities for such services. Reportedly at the urging of commercial broadband providers, State Sen. Steven Rauschenberger introduced a bill that would forbid cities from either offering broadband service or "reselling" such service to a company that would then manage it. Alderman Edward Burke said he would introduce legislation that would give the city the right to install a broadband wireless network before the state could pass the law that would prevent it. Christopher O'Brien, chief information officer for Chicago, said a city-wide network would likely consist of about 7,500 antennas on light poles and would cost more than $18 million. One option, said O'Brien, would be to enter into an agreement with a company that would install and maintain the network and would pay the city rent for the use of the light poles. Federal Computer Week, 14 March 2005 http://www.fcw.com/article88275 SCHOOLS CRITICIZED OVER REJECTION OF NOSY APPLICANTS A number of business-school applicants who were rejected due to their looking at university admissions records online without authorization have spoken out against the universities' decision to exclude them. Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, and MIT have rejected the applications of 153 individuals who used a hacker's instructions to try to find out if they had been accepted. Although some applicants involved acknowledged that accessing the records was wrong, they contended that the actions do not constitute hacking and that the institutions have overreacted. One rejected applicant wrote a letter to Harvard, admitting a "lapse in judgment" but noting that he "wasn't trying to harm anyone and wasn't trying to get an advantage over anyone." Len Metheny, CEO and president of ApplyYourself, the software that all the affected schools used for applications, said the procedure to access the records was sufficiently complicated that anyone doing so would have to have known it was unauthorized. Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 March 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/03/2005031104n.htm APPLE WINS RIGHT TO SUBPOENA E-MAIL RECORDS New iPod, etc., outed before official announcement] A judge in California has ruled that Apple Computer has the right to subpoena records of an e-mail provider to determine the source of leaks of confidential company information on upcoming products. In his ruling, Judge James P. Kleinberg was careful to sidestep the question of protection for journalists and to note that his ruling does not concern the merits of Apple's underlying case. Rather, he found that under California law, the information published on Mac enthusiast sites constitutes stolen property, as would physical property that had been stolen. While the law does not allow prevention of such publications, those responsible--regardless of the definition of "journalist"--must bear the consequences of doing so, said Kleinberg. Apple hopes through the proceedings to identify those individuals who leaked the information that was posted on the enthusiast sites. The operators of those sites are not the target of Apple's efforts. Kleinberg delayed enforcement of his ruling for seven days to provide an opportunity for the defendants to appeal. CNET, 11 March 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1047_3-5611285.html You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html or send e-mail to: edupage@educause.edu To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA Malaria Drastically Underreported It turns out that the media have been giving false reports on malaria these past years, with half a billion people on file as having malaria in 2002, but probably less than one half that many were acknowledged. The possible reason behind this is that most media outlets are not particularly concerned with Africa, other than the portion bordering the Middle Eastern oil/conflict region. At least half of the world's malaria cases are located out of the regions the media concentrates on, in a sub-Saharan region of Africa. However, about one quarter of malaria cases are located in Asia and the Western Pacific. And this is only counting the most deadly form of Malaria, plasmodium falciparum malaria; 515 million cases per year. As the World Wide Web brings us closer together, the media can no longer continue to keep us apart. * In a related story, it would appear that "The Plague" your history books mentioned in Europe, actually more like some world series of plagues, conferred upon its survivors, and their descendants, resistance to AIDS. * In yet another related story, having one gene for "sickle- cell anemia" gives resistance to malaria, which explains a confounding persistence of sickle-cell anemia in Africa. * FOUL UP CAUSES ANTHRAX SCARE, STOCK MARKET FALLS [Official Pentagon Spokesman Remains Anonymous] Apparently a test sample either was not cleaned out of the anthrax testing machines or such a sample was placed close or on the air filter from the Pentagon Remote Delivery Facility to cause the recent anthrax scare this past week. As a result, 100's of government employees were placed on a three day regimen of antibiotics at an undisclosed cost in terms of medical support, paid work leave, lost work, etc., not to mention the substantial loss to our finanical markets. "Quality Control Problems" were officially announced as the cause of the scare by a senior Pentagon official who has insisted on remaining nameless. * In Juxaposition, However, It Appears The Bird Flu Has Been Undercounted To A Major Degree In A Different Kind Of Error * *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK "That which does not kill you makes you stronger." That's why our cockroaches and rats are so tough. *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK Pharacological [drug] companies will spend well over half their entire budgets this year on their marketing divisions and stock dividends while only spending 3% on developing new drugs and 9% on revamping old drugs to renew patents or to develop new drugs that do not out perform old drugs. Figures are from the US SEC [Securities Exchange Commission] *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK A few years ago the average citizen of the world had not ever made a single phone call. Today even the average citizen of Africa has made a phone call. [Figures from Reuters] * "If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be: 57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south 8 Africans 52 would be female 48 would be male 70 would be non-white 30 would be white 70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States 80 would live in substandard housing 70 would be unable to read 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education 1 would own a computer I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date, as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer then there would be only 60 million people in the world who owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States households have computers, out of over 100 million households. Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in the United States. I just called our local reference librarian and got the number of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at: 111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports. If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million, and that's counting just one computer per household, and not counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc. I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate given above, and would like some help researching these and other such figures, if anyone is interested. BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old. This means that basically 90% of the world's population would never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they can receive more per year, but because they will live more years to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in. *** *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. 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pgweekly_2005_03_16_part_1.txt
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