From hart at pglaf.org Tue Aug 1 10:06:36 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Tue Aug 1 10:06:38 2006
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0608011005290.26061@pglaf.org>
this is both parts at once
This first portion is estimates of progress since the
last of the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletters, and
a few of the figures are accurate, some just guesses,
but I need something to start counting from, when the
normal weekly progression starts tomorrow.
I may not get ALL the figures updated below as I have
only half an hour longer before Geek Lunch.
Michael
Last Week, July 25, 2006
18,870 US +375
909 AU +159
330 EU +4
8,825 DP +151
368 PP +0
20,477 GT +377
[note that previously PGAu was included here, not now,
hence the numbers don't add up this time, but a future
counting formula should work this out. I am advised a
number of the PGAu eBooks are also counted in those US
numbers in the cataloging process if the copyright was
OK in both countries. Perhaps someday we can find the
right kind of person to reconcile these figures.]
pt1a4.706
pt1b4.706
Weekly_July_25.txt
***The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 25, 2006 PT1*
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971********
*
This is my first attempt at a Newsletter on a new system, so please bear with
me as I try to learn a whole new bag of tricks to get these things written up
in a way that doesn't take me a whole day for each one.
This file contains the data up to about July 25, what would have been in this
Newsletter a week ago, but some of the data will just be approximations since
not all the numbers are kept on a daily or weekly basis.
Please also let me know if you think these Newsletters are a waste of time or
if you think I/we should keep doing them.
Thanks!
Michael
*
Editor's comments appear in [brackets].
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
*
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
I may try to do this all from a one month perspective here, stay tuned.
~200 New This Month From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
~4 New This Month From PGEu [European Copyrights, Life + 50 and 70]
0 New This Month From PG PrePrints
~375 New This Month To Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
~377 New This Month [Including PG Australia, PG Europe and PrePrints]
Note change in Australia inclusion noted elsewhere in detail!!
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones*
20,102 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
18,870 Project Gutenberg US [+377] [NOT Including PG Australia]
900 Australian eBooks [+150] [NOT Included in above line]
330 Gutenberg Europe [+ 4] [NOT Included in above lines]
368 PG PrePrint Site [+ 0] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
377 Total New Books [Since about about month ago]
20,477 Grand Total of all four sites
20,484
[via our automated program, versus by hand]
[Please note we have several counting methods,
and they often differ by several book that we
have to hunt down by hand to reconcile.]
~5% of the way from 20,000 to 30,000
Last Week, July 25, 2006
18,870 US +375
909 AU +159
330 EU +4
8,825 DP +151
368 PP +0
20,477 GT +377
[note that previously PGAu was included here, not now,
hence the numbers don't add up this time, but a future
counting formula should work this out. I am advised a
number of the PGAu eBooks are also counted in those US
numbers in the cataloging process if the copyright was
OK in both countries. Perhaps someday we can find the
right kind of person to reconcile these figures.]
***584 eBooks Averaged Per Year Since July 4, 1971***
17,416 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~261 eBooks per Month for ~66.80 Months
2,336 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
151 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
~8,800 total from Distributed Proofreaders
Since October, 2000 [Details in PT1B]
[Currently over 36,000 DP volunteers]
We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Averaged ~248 eBooks Per Month In 2005
[Including PG Australia]
We Are Averaging ~343 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
[Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints]
All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 80.5 eBooks Per Week In 2006
108 This Week
392 This Month [Jun]
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
*
[The above changes due to the opening of Project Gutenberg
sites other than the original one at www.gutenberg.org]
[Now including totals from Australia, Europe and PrePrints]
[Apologies, it will take a while to integrate everything
not all statistics may be totally equalized yet]
[Daily PGEu stats at http://dp.rastko.net/default.php]
[Daily DP stats at http://www.pgdp.net]
BTW, we just started a new "PrePrints" site at PG,
so if you come across eBooks that aren't ready for
primetime, but that should be saved for upgrading,
we have a place to put them.
[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.
*
75,000+ eBooks at the PG Consortia Center
http://www.gutenberg.cc
[Including after July 4]
*
***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 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@pobox.com and gbnewby@pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
FREE INTERNET REFERENCE SITE
LivingInternet.com provides a 700-odd page reference about the Internet
"to provide living context and perspective to this most technological
of human inventions", and has received input from many people that helped
build the Internet. It currently receives about 3 thousand visitors a day,
many from educational institutions. Now in its 7th year of operation.
http://www.livinginternet.com/
TEXT TO SPEECH
Dolphin Producer is a new software package which will convert a text
document into a fully synchronized text and audio DTB at the push of a
single button. The DTB can then be played back using Dolphin's
EaseReader software player - which is included in Dolphin Producer.
The DTB can also be played back on any other DAISY DTB software or
hardware player, as well as any MP3 player - The choice is yours.
http://www.dolphinuk.co.uk or http://www.dolphinusa.com
***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***
pt1a2.606
pt1b2.606
Weekly_June_21.txt
***The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 21, 2006 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
***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ngcoba/ngcoba.htm
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
for books by specific authors who you are interested in.
For information please contact Philip Harper
<webmaster AT kingkong.demon.co.uk>
*
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!
*
Please visit and test our newest site:
"PROJECT GUTENBERG EUROPE"
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http://dp.rastko.net [Distributed Proofreaders Europe]
*
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Start from any bibliographic record page, e.g.
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in a cookie so you can later resume reading where you left off.
Please test it. It should work with any book that has a text file
where the encoding is known.
*
MACHINE TRANSLATION
We are seeking as much information as possible on the various
approaches to Machine Translation. Any brand names or contact
information would be greatly appreciated.
***
Please use our new site for downloading DVD and CD images, etc.
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and
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Aaron Cannon has placed the CD and DVD there if anyone wants to test.
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 06.60 months of this year, PG produced 2,336 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to Sep 2000 to produce our first 2,336 eBooks!
That's 29 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 Years!!!
108 New eBooks This Week
103 New eBooks Last Week
374 New eBooks This Month [Jun]
336 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
2336 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
====
17,416 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 66.60 Months!
~261 books per month!
20,484 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks [Auto-count]
16,842 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,642 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
~900 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
368 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
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
8,649 Books to Project Gutenberg.
42 added this week.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php
*
Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how
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.
Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs:
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or
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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@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 5,700 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 #210 of 2006
This Completes Week #29 and Month #06.60 [364 days this year]
196 Days/30 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
9,516 Books To Go To #30,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
80 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
44 Only ~45 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers List
[Used to be well over 100]
[This listing usually from the previous week]
*** Permanent Requests For Assistance:
DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES
Please visit the site:
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for more information about how you can help a lot by
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If you have a book that has been scanned, but not yet run
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Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the
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visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file)
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***
Statistical Review
In the 29 weeks of this year, we have produced 2336 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 11/00 to produce our FIRST 2336 eBooks!!!
That's 29 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #2336
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]
[Sorry, no time right now, only 6 minutes to deadline]
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet?
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,531,968,950 that would be 20,484 x 65,319,690 = ~1.34 Trillion !!!
With 20,484 eBooks online as of July 25, 2006 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.75 from each book.
[1% world population x #eBooks] 6,531,968,95 x 20,102 x $.75 = ~$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 million last month!]
*
6,531,968,950
65,319,690
A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.49 Value Per Book To 100 Million
With 20,484 eBooks online as of July 25, 2006 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.49 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.60 when we had 16,842 eBooks a year ago.
Our Target Audience Is 1.5% Of The World Population = ~100,000,000 people.
At 20,484 eBooks in 35 Years and 00.60 Months We Averaged
580 Per Year
48 Per Month
1.60 Per Day
At 2336 eBooks Done In The 209 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
11.2 Per Day
78 per Week
340 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]
U.S. LEGISLATORS MOVE TO BAN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
[My own comments about such politicking are included below,
but here it is obviously that it is a "bad thing" to let an
ordinary society of teens take place if we can't watch over
them to make sure others aren't watching over them, too.]
A bill introduced by Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) that aims to
restrict social networking Web sites in schools and libraries passed
the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 410-15. The Deleting
Online Predators Act (DOPA) would require organizations that receive
funds under the federal E-Rate program to install Internet filters that
would block access to sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The FCC would
be responsible for defining what sites would be covered by the law.
According to the American Library Association (ALA), about two-thirds
of U.S. libraries would be subject to the law. Supporters of the
legislation said that children who use such Web sites become targets of
sexual predators. Opponents of the law said it is overly broad and
would prevent computer users from accessing a number of unrelated
sites, such as Amazon, blogs, wikis, and even news sites. Leslie
Burger, president of the ALA, said, "DOPA is redundant and unnecessary
legislation," noting that the Children's Internet Protection Act
already requires institutions to block Web content considered harmful
to children. The bill now goes to the Senate.
BBC, 31 July 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5230506.stm
[Note that this coverage is from the BBC [British Broadcasting Co.,
who often covers such issues when American media refuses to. . .the
reason many of these articles are included here, just to stop bias]
[Speaking of Social Networking of the younger generations. . . .]
MTV ENTERS SOCIAL NETWORKING GAME
MTV is introducing a new cable channel and Web site designed to take
advantage of the immense popularity of social networking software.
Sites such as MySpace (which was recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch),
YouTube, and Bebo have large numbers of loyal users who go to the sites
to find others with similar interests, share content, and communicate
with friends through various means. MTV's social networking entry,
Flux, will combine online tools with a cable channel, allowing users to
select the videos that they see on the channel, upload multimedia
files, and talk with other users. The site also lets users interact
through avatars--animated figures that represent individual users. An
official from MTV said Flux puts control in the hands of users,
"challenging the status quo in TV programming."
CNET, 24 July 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-6097692.html
PROVOSTS BACK OPEN ACCESS TO PUBLIC RESEARCH
An open letter signed by the provosts of 25 universities supports
passage of the Federal Public Research Access Act, which would require
federal agencies to publish their research findings online and free
within six months of publication elsewhere. Publishers, including
scholarly associations, oppose the bill, claiming that it could
endanger research and threaten many journals. The provosts' letter
encourages higher education to consider changing the way research
findings are disseminated while acknowledging that the bill would force
publishers and scholarly societies to consider significant shifts in
their publishing approach.
Inside Higher Ed, 28 July 2006
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/28/provosts
KAZAA PAYS TO SETTLE PIRACY LAWSUITS
[And Kazaa fooled us into thinking there weren't a big business!]
Kazaa, the file-sharing service now owned by Sharman Networks Ltd.,
agreed to pay more than $115 million to settle lawsuits brought against
it by the entertainment industry. Kazaa also agreed to use filtering
systems to prevent users from exchanging copyrighted music and movie
files and plans to work with entertainment companies to sell licensed
content. The agreement marks the end of litigation against Kazaa that
began in 2001.
Wall Street Journal, 28 July 2006
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115400080714018951.html?mod=technology_main
_whats_news
GOOGLE LAUNCHES SITE CATERING TO VISUALLY IMPAIRED
A new service from Google Labs promises easier searching for users with
visual impairments. Web sites full of graphics and animations are fine
for sighted users, but screen readers and other technologies that
assist the blind or visually impaired have considerable difficulty
rendering such sites in a way that can easily be understood. The new
service, called Google Accessible Search site, will evaluate how easily
assistive technologies are likely to be able to parse and present the
content of a Web page and moves those sites higher in the listing of
search results. According to T.V. Raman, research scientist in charge
of the service, the service is an "early-stage experiment" that he
hopes can be further developed and refined based on user feedback.
CNET, 19 July 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-6096169.html
INDIA CLAMPS DOWN ON BLOGS
The Indian government has ordered the country's 153 ISPs to block
access to 17 Web sites, some of them blogs, causing an outcry among the
country's bloggers. The government issued a directive in 2003 noting
that it has the authority to restrict Web sites if they are deemed
threatening to the state or its relationship with other countries or
could potentially incite crime. The blogging community in India has
reacted strongly, criticizing the government for censoring free speech.
One blogger, Amit Agarwal, said his country has "joined the Internet
Filtering Club of China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Ethiopia." Others
expressed fears that the government is trying to restrict all blogs in
the country, a charge the government denied.
BBC, 19 July 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5194172.stm
[Meanwhile, in China. . . .]
CHINA SENDS INTERNET REPORTER TO PRISON
Chinese courts have convicted another individual of using the Internet
to distribute content deemed inappropriate and subversive. Li Yuanlong
was accused of writing essays critical of unemployment and rural
poverty and e-mailing them to Chinese-language news outlets based in
the United States. Charges filed in February against Li said the essays
"fabricated, distorted and exaggerated facts, incited subversion of the
state, and [sought] to overthrow the socialist system." The court found
Li guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison. Li's lawyer noted
that although he believes the ruling was unjust, the sentence could
have been much longer. Similar charges in other cases have resulted in
prison terms of five and even ten years for those found guilty.
CNET, 13 July 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6094022.html
[and]
CHINESE AUTHORITIES TO TIGHTEN CONTROL OF INTERNET ACCESS
Chinese authorities, keen to exert considerable control over access
inside the country to online content it finds objectionable, has
announced plans to increase restrictions on Internet and cell-phone
technologies. Among the proposals is a requirement that users of cell
phones would have to register themselves. Currently, Chinese citizens
can use cell phones anonymously, which allows many millions to access
and share information that would otherwise be prohibited by the
government. Search engines are another likely target for tightened
control. Despite recent agreements with major search engines operating
in the country, "more and more harmful information is being circulated
online," according to Cai Wu, director of the Information Office of the
State Council. The planned crackdown riled many Chinese bloggers, but
others, including Wang Yi, law professor at Chengdu University, were
more optimistic. Wang noted that each generation of new technologies
has been censored by government authorities but that new tools continue
to appear, staying one or two years ahead of the restrictions.
New York Times, 4 July 2006 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/world/asia/04internet.html
[and]
ACADEMICS SNEAK PAST CHINESE FIREWALL
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered a way to
circumvent the firewall operated by the Chinese government and also to
use it to launch denial-of-service attacks. Chinese authorities
implemented the firewall to try to prevent computer users in the
country from accessing any information deemed inflammatory by the
government. According to Richard Clayton of the university's computer
lab, the firewall allows packets in and out of the country, but, when a
packet contains prohibited information, the firewall initiates a reset,
which causes the connection between the sending and receiving computers
to fail. "If you drop all the reset packets at both ends of the
connection, which is relatively trivial to do," said Clayton, "the Web
page is transferred just fine." At the same time, spoofed return
addresses for Internet transmissions will cause the firewall to
temporarily block traffic to and from those computers. Clayton noted
that even with a single dial-up connection, a hacker could create a
very disruptive attack. The researchers have reported their findings to
the Chinese Computer Emergency Response Team.
CNET, 3 July 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6090437.html
LAWSUIT ALLEGES COLLUSION IN CHIP MARKET
[Didn't you wonder why RAM chips didn't go down as other chips did?
34 states' attorneys general wonder why, too. . .price fixing??]
Attorneys general in 34 states, led by California's Bill Lockyer, have
filed a suit alleging that seven makers of dynamic random access memory
(DRAM) chips conspired to artificially inflate prices between 1998 and
2002. The lawsuit contends that the companies named fixed prices,
limited supplies, and rigged bids for the chips. Makers of consumer
products that use DRAM chips, including most computer manufacturers,
were forced to pay inflated prices and passed those extra costs on to
consumers, according to the complaint. A federal investigation launched
in 2002 into chipmakers' practices resulted in fines totaling hundreds
of millions of dollars for the world's leading chipmakers. The current
suit was filed in California because that is the home of many of the
computer makers directly affected by the alleged scheme.
ZDNet, 13 July 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6094140.html
RICE PRESS REBORN AS ONLINE ONLY
[I remember when Rice was one of the most conservative about such matters]
Rice University will restart its press, which was closed in 1996, as an
online-only operation, publishing peer-reviewed books and monographs.
Faced with declining budgets, many libraries buy fewer books, leaving
academic publishers unwilling to publish books unless they can justify
the printing costs. Rice's model does away with printing, allowing the
press to publish texts not published otherwise while considerably
speeding up the publishing process. Because texts will be
peer-reviewed, organizers hope the reborn Rice press will be as
prestigious--and as valid for tenure or promotion--as a traditional
press. The press will operate through Connexions, a site that offers
course materials free of charge. Separately, Connexions will also begin
offering print-on-demand custom textbooks, assembled from individual
modules within Connexions. The textbooks are expected to cost
significantly less than comparable offerings from traditional textbook
publishers.
Inside Higher Ed, 14 July 2006
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/14/rice
SQUABBLE OVER CELL PHONES IN SCHOOL GOES TO COURT
Parents of public school kids in New York City have filed a lawsuit to
overturn a ban on cell phones in schools. The ban, which was originally
put in place in 1988 and concerned primarily pagers, was not widely
enforced until recently, when schools added X-ray machines to help keep
schools safe. Under the ban, cell phones can be confiscated and only
returned to parents, who must go to the school to pick them up. Parents
objected, saying cell phones represent a safety issue for kids and that
the chancellor of schools overstepped his authority in banning the
devices. School officials said students use cell phones for cheating,
making drug deals, taking photos in locker rooms, and other
inappropriate activities. The parents hoping to overturn the ban are
looking to a case from the early 1990s in which the courts ruled that
the school system went beyond its authority in distributing condoms to
students. The argument, which the court accepted, was that such
activity is properly under the purview of parents, not the school.
Opponents of the cell phone ban contend that having a cell phone is
similarly the decision of parents rather than school administrators.
New York Times, 13 July 2006 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/nyregion/13cnd-cellphone.html
PENTAGON ACKNOWLEDGES MONITORING STUDENT E-MAIL
Surveillance reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act
indicate that the Department of Defense monitored student e-mail as
part of its efforts to identify and track potential terrorist suspects.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network filed requests for the
information, and the reports released so far cover e-mail surveillance
at the State University of New York at Albany, Southern Connecticut
State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and William
Paterson University of New Jersey. Student e-mail was monitored when it
dealt with protests against the war in Iraq or against the military's
"don't ask, don't tell" program concerning gay and lesbian members of
the armed forces. Instances of monitoring were evidently prompted by
reports of suspicious behavior, but a Pentagon spokesperson would not
say who submitted the reports that led to the monitoring described in
the surveillance reports. Kermit Hall, president of SUNY-Albany, said
his institution is investigating the nature of the monitoring and how
it was conducted and would decide later how to proceed.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 July 2006 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/07/2006070601n.htm
PARIS LOOKS TO INCREASE CITY ACCESS
The mayor of Paris has announced plans to significantly increase
Internet access in the city, through both wired and wireless channels.
Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said that the city will work with private
companies to establish a free Wi-Fi network across Paris by the end of
2007. The access points for the network would be located in parks,
squares, libraries, and other public areas. The city will also cut
taxes on fiber-optic cables in an effort to increase the availability
of high-speed connections to 80 percent of the city. Currently, 60
percent of Parisians have access to high-speed Internet, according to
Delanoe. Under the proposal, which Delanoe will submit to the city
council next week, fees for fiber-optic cable running through the
city's sewer system would fall by one-fourth. Additionally, companies
would be eligible for tax breaks as high as 90 percent on the first 400
meters of fiber-optic cabling that is installed to buildings that are
not currently connected to high-speed lines.
ZDNet, 4 July 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6090503.html
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
*DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
[This part from an earlier report, slightly modified. . .more below]
The Senate refused to repeal 100% of the estate tax that had been
vilified as "The Death Tax," by embattled White House guru Karl Rove,
but in the end it will cost the real taxpayers just as much, as the
deal is being engineered by repealing what may be all timber company
taxes to win over Senate votes from timber rich Washington State.
All in all The Estate Tax is being repealed for all but the richest
1% or less in the country, and it should be mentioned that that 1%
owns half of everything that can be owned in the United States.
Source: The Washington Post
[I wonder how rest of the country would react to all this if that 1%
who own half of everything in the US actually lived on their blocks,
and owned half the land, half the cars, half the stock, bonds, cash,
boats, etc., while the next 1% owned half of what was left, the next
1% owned half of that, etc. . .leaving only a few percent for 90% of
the block's residents???]
[Meanwhile this week Congress approved a bill to finally increase an
entirely out of date minimum wage of $5.15 to $7.25 over three years
of phase in time, over objections from big business that this should
not be done because it would make the US non-competitive world-wide,
as they could not compete with globalization of sweatshop owners for
the world markets. This was all in return for a quid pro quo voting
down estate taxes on the very wealthy.
It would appear that you can't get a vote for the common worker with
no return vote for the very rich in the current Congress.
In common parlance, this is known as
"robbing Peter to pay Paul."
For some reason this reminds me of our own local recycling tax, $24,
for a weekly pick up of certain materials, after years of politics--
including perhaps a million dollars in wasted money and productivity
on a "bottle bill" that was eventually passed by referendum, several
times for several areas, then voted on my multiple city council vote
taking after even more wasted time, then approved by one mayor, then
finally. . .after all that. . .the other mayor. . .having allowed us
to work through all those years of effort. . .
vetoed the bottle bill.
But we ended up with that $24 recycling tax and plastic bins for the
households to put out recycling materials in, bins that we never see
in use in front of the average house if you drive down the streets--
but we still have bottles littering more houses than use the bins.
See why I am apolitical to the point of being anti-political?
One last point. . .the Equal Rights Amendment. . . .
"Equality of rights under the law shall not be deined or abridged by
the United Sttes or by any state on account of sex."
That's the entire thing, other than two even shorter sentences for a
power to enforce and take effect. . . .
The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced only 3 years after a
movement finally got women the right to vote in the United States.
35 states have ratified the amemdment.
The cost in money and time has been billions of dollars, if not from
all aspects a trillion dollars.
The text of the Equal Rights Amendment is simple. . . .
It's what is said ABOUT it that is not simple.
Some say that equal rights for too many is ruining the United States.
Just another reason to hate politicking.]
[Darn! I thought I was done with politicking for the time being but
the radio just reminded me that we are going through a "prohibition"
stage with smoking that is becoming reminiscent of the "prohibition"
period concerning drinking. This is particularly evident here, in a
state that proudly or not is the home of Al Capone, Roger Touhy, and
and host of other gangland legends involved in the prohibition era.
What is happening here is the same thing that happened with drinking
in that certain areas are becoming "dry" or "smoke free" with a wide
variety of laws prohibiting smoking. However, where _I_ live, in an
odd community composed of two cities and a major university, the law
can get quite tricky when and if more than one jurisdiction takes an
action to enforce a law, which is usually the case, as follows.
Both city councils decided that smoking was a "bad thing" and should
be outlawed, at least in all locations they could manage.
However, due to "situational ethics" each community was afraid a law
passed by their city council but not by the other, would simply move
consumers. . .the God of any retail marketing society. . .to spend a
greater and greater proportion of their time in the other town and a
greater and greater proportion of their money. . .along with it.
This is particularly evident in some neighborhoods I have lived in--
where bars line one side of the street, while the other is dry, from
certainl laws that take effected here and there, and now and then.
The city councils were actively concerned with the same thing, and a
very public snafu ocurred when they couldn't get it together, read a
term equal to "conspiracy" but with no legal implications, since the
city councils are beyond that sort of thing.
However, eventually laws were passed that are supposed to shut down,
more or less, smoking within various city limits, including campus.
Obviously we will still see those adult delinquents still gathered a
bunch here and a bunch there, smoking furiously during coffee breaks
that may have the same effect when caffeine joins nicotine as banned
substances, since we never learned from alcohol prohibition.
No coffee.
No cigarettes.
No alcohol.
But wait, didn't they believe in having multiple wives?
They must be the most immoral of all!
[Ok. . .ok. . .more than enough about politics, and I do not want to
get into religion any more than I want to get into politics. Having
made what I hope is a point about why, I retire from the scene until
something rears its ugly head that I can't ignore.]
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"We'll give you a ~$2 an hour pay raise over three years if you will
give us millions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich right now."
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
It will eventually be determined that there has been an overall
pattern of divulging the personal information of U.S. citizens,
as well as of the collection of information "above and beyond a
call of duty" by the United States since the start of the FBI,"
and well beyond the scope of the FBI.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
I interviewed a high level Washington source on location during
my tour of the East Coast and asked for just one thing I should
tell you that you won't find in the news media.
The answer?
"More people are dying than you know" in the various conflicts.
*
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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pgweekly_2006_07_25_part_1.txt
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