From hart at pglaf.org Wed Oct 4 09:35:40 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Wed Oct 4 09:35:48 2006
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0610040934540.25283@pglaf.org>
pt1a4.906
pt1b4.906
Weekly_October_04.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 04, 2006 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
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Some Suggestions We Received For The Newsletters
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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:
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*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
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
21,445 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
19,421 Project Gutenberg US [+ 75] [NOT Including PG Australia]
1,293 Australian eBooks [+ 3] [NOT Included in above line]
352 Gutenberg Europe [+ 1] [NOT Included in above lines]
376 PG PrePrint Site [+ 0] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
21,445 Grand Total [+ 79]
21,443 [by hand count] [+ 79]
[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.]
~14% of the way from 20,000 to 30,000
100,000+ eBooks at the PG Consortia Center
http://www.gutenberg.cc [185,000+ files]
[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
100,000+ books contains entire eBook collections from 125+ eLibraries so
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.]
/
18,374 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~266 eBooks per Month for ~68.75 Months
3,297 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
54 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
9,165 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 85 eBooks Per Week In 2006
79 This Week
58 Last Week
355 This Month [Sep]
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our first 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
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 ~2.8 years from Oct. 2003 to Jun. 2006 from 10,000 to 20,000
It took ~2.3 years from Jan. 2004 to Aug. 2006 from 11,000 to 21,000
Not counting the addition of The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center's
Receipt of ~100,000 eBooks from 125+ Other eLibraries Worldwide.
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***Introduction
[Ignore for the moment]
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
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***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***
pt1a4.906
pt1b4.906
Weekly_October_04.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 04, 2006 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
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In the first 09.00 months of this year, PG produced 3,297 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to Jun 2002 to produce our first 3,297 eBooks!
That's 39 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!!!
79 New eBooks This Week
58 New eBooks Last Week
355 New eBooks This Month [Sep]
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
3297 New eBooks in 2006 Passed 2005 total in 3/4 year
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
====
18,374 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 69.00 Months!
~266 books per month!
21,445 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
17,248 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,197 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
1,293 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
[This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted
at the U.S. site: www.gutenberg.org ]
352 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Europe
376 Items in Project Gutenberg PrePrints
~100,000 Project Gutenberg Consortia Center
http://www.gutenberg.cc
[~185,000 files at about 2 files pers book]
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Project Gutenberg began operation on July 4, 1971
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Project Gutenberg of Australia began in August, 2001
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center started in 1997]
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and presuming 45% are reduntant or are required
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The number of individual eBooks now is about 100,000.
Thus the grand total of eBooks at Project Gutenberg
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and 100,000 donated from over 125 other eLibraries,
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plus 80,000 donated from over 100 other eLibraries,
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Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files
Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<<
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Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files
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PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change
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Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files
Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files
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=======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files=====
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It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
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***
Today Is Day #273 of 2006
This Completes Week #39 and Month #09.00 [364 days this year]
98 Days/18 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
8,555 Books To Go To #30,000
We are 14.5% of the way from 20,000 to 30,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
85 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 ~42 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 39 weeks of this year, we have produced 3297 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 06/02 to produce our FIRST 3297 eBooks!!!
That's 39 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3297
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]
/
Jun 2002 Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith [Adam Smith #1] [wltntxxx.xxx] 3300
[Title: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]
Jun 2002 Mr Honey's Banking Dictionary [English-German] [8bkedxxx.xxx] 3299
[Language: English/German]
Jun 2002 Mr Honey's Banking Dictionary [German-English] [8bkdexxx.xxx] 3298
[Language: German/English]
Jun 2002 Schnock, by Friedrich Hebbel [In German][Hebbel#2][?schnxxx.xxx] 3297
[Language: German]
Jun 2002 The Confessions of Saint Augustine [tcosaxxx.xxx] 3296
[AKA: The Confessions of St. Augustine] [Tr.: Edward Bouverie Pusey]
Jun 2002 The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume I [1mlazxxx.xxx] 3295
Jun 2002 The Sea-Hawk, by Rafael Sabatini [Sabatini #11][seahkxxx.xxx] 3294
Jun 2002 Conquest of Granada, by Washington Irving[W.I.#6] [cgranxxx.xxx] 3293
[Title: Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada]
Jun 2002 The Clever Woman of the Family, by Charlotte Yonge[cwotfxxx.xxx] 3292
[Author AKA: Charlotte M. Yonge]
Jun 2002 John Marshall and the Constitution, by Corwin [jmatcxxx.xxx] 3291
[Title: John Marshall and the Constitution, A Chronicle of the Supreme
Court] [Author: Edward S. Corwin]
Jun 2002 Valerius Terminus, by Francis Bacon [F. Bacon #3][vtrmuxxx.xxx] 3290
[Title: Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature]
(Note: unannotated in vtrmuxxx.xxx; annotated version: [vtrmaxxx.xxx]
Jun 2002 The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle[Doyle28][vfearxxx.xxx] 3289
The Sky Pilot in No Man's Land, by Ralph Connor 3288
The Man From Glengarry, A Tale of the Ottowa, by Ralph Connor 3287
Jun 2002 Selections, Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke [spwebxxx.xxx] 3286
[Title: Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke]
Jun 2002 The Deerslayer, by James Fenimore Cooper [JFC #7][dslyrxxx.xxx] 3285
Jun 2002 The Discovery of the Source of the Nile, by Speke [disnlxxx.xxx] 3284
[Author: John Hanning Speke]
Jun 2002 The Upanishads, translated by Swami Paramananda [upanixxx.xxx] 3283
[Title: The Upanishads, translated and commentated by Swami Paramananda]
Jun 2002 The Brown Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang, Ed.[Lang#32][brfryxxx.xxx] 3282
Cy Whittaker's Place, by J. C. Lincoln 3281
Cap'n Warren's Wards, by Joseph C. Lincoln 3280
Jun 2002 Canterbury Pieces, by Samuel Butler [S. Butler #8][cantpxxx.xxx] 3279
Jun 2002 Cambridge Pieces, by Samuel Butler [S. Butler #7][cambpxxx.xxx] 3278
[See also #3235)
[Title: A First Year in Canterbury Settlement][Butler #6]
Jun 2002 The Complete Works of Artemus Ward [Browne] Part 7[7wardxxx.xxx] 3277
/
Have We Given Away A Trillion Dollars Worth or a Trillion eBooks Yet???
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,548,263,653 that would be 21,445 x 65,482,637 = ~1.40 Trillion !!!
With 21,455 eBooks online as of October 04, 2006 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.71 from each book.
[1% world population x #eBooks] 65,482,637 x 21,455 x $.71 = ~$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 turning 299.9 million this week!]
U.S. 299,901,719
World 6,548,263,653
16:24 GMT (EST+5) Oct 04, 2006
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the equivalent of Eastern Standard Time
(EST) plus 5 hours or Daylight Saving Time (DST) plus 4 hours.
A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.47 Value Per Book To 100 Million
With 21,455 eBooks online as of October 04, 2006 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.47 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.58 when we had 17,248 eBooks a year ago.
[This is not counting the 100,000 eBooks at http://gutenberg.cc which are
counted and maintained separately by their donating electronic libraries]
Our Target Audience Is 1.5% Of The World Population = ~100 million people.
Next Decade's Target: 15% Of The world Population = 1 billion !!! people.
At 21,455 eBooks in 35 Years and 03.00 Months We Averaged
609 Per Year
51 Per Month
1.67 Per Day
At 3297 eBooks Done In The 273 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
12.1 Per Day
85 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 299M,
just two weeks ago. . .the U.S. is already 80% the way to 300M, so
it will probably be 2 more weeks 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]
BERKELEY PUTS COURSE VIDEO ONLINE
In an arrangement with Google, the University of California, Berkeley,
will make available online considerable amounts of videotaped course
content, including lectures, speeches, special events, and, in some
cases, entire courses. UC Berkeley is the only institution with its own
page on the Google Video Web site, and the course materials are
available for public use. Dan Mogulof, director of public affairs at UC
Berkeley, said, "We are a public university. We have fabulous faculty
and incredible events. We want to share the wealth across the state,
country, and world." UC Berkeley is not the first university to post
course materials online, but its program is one of the broader
initiatives, given the amount of content and the fact that it is open
to anyone. Officials from the university said they expect other
institutions to launch similar efforts.
Mercury News, 28 September 2006
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/15627859.htm
[MIT has been doing this for years, and to a much wider degree,
this coverage is mostly due to Google's huge press machine.]
DEAL REACHED FOR ONLINE MUSIC ROYALTIES
Songwriters and record companies in Britain reached an agreement over
royalties for online music sales just as a copyright tribunal that
would have decided the issue went into session. In the dispute, record
companies were represented by the British Phonographic Industry, and
Adam Singer represented songwriters. Singer heads the
Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society Ltd and the Performing Right
Society Ltd. Songwriters and composers had sought a royalty rate of 12
percent, an increase from the existing rate of 8 percent. Record
companies wanted the rate to drop to 6.5 percent. In the final
negotiations, both sides agreed to accept the 8 percent rate for three
more years, which amounts to about 10 cents per song sold on Apple's
iTunes service. The tribunal accepted the settlement, which is legally
binding only in the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, experts said the deal
could influence similar negotiations in other countries, including the
United States and Germany.
Wall Street Journal, 28 September 2006 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115945647272576748.html
SAN JOSE STATE TRIES TO BAN SKYPE
Administrators at San Jose State University (SJSU) have temporarily
suspended a ban on Internet phone service Skype but said they would
reinstitute the prohibition if concerns over network usage are not
adequately addressed. A number of universities have blocked use of
Skype because of language in the user agreement that appears to allow
individuals not associated with the university to use the campus
network for phone calls. Skype works by routing calls through available
networks, even for third parties, using computers of users who have
accepted the company's terms of use. "It's a fairly subtle problem,"
said Kevin Schmidt, campus network programmer at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, which has also banned Skype. He said the
result could be "fair amount of traffic that has nothing to do with
university business." Following the ban at SJSU, many students and
faculty objected, saying the service has become vital to their efforts
to keep in touch with families overseas and to promote educational
programs around the globe. Campus officials acknowledged those concerns
but said that if eBay, which owns Skype, cannot address the problem,
the service will be shut off.
San Jose Mercury News, 21 September 2006
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/15576648.htm
UNIVERSITY IN SPAIN JOINS GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH
The Complutense University of Madrid has joined Google's controversial
Book Search project, making it the first institution from a
non-English-speaking country to take part. The university maintains the
second-largest library in Spain, with 3 million volumes; only the
National Library is larger. In addition to books in Spanish, the
library also houses texts in French, German, Latin, Italian, and
English. A spokesperson from Google said the deal with Complutense
University "will be a huge boost to our Spanish-language content, as
well as other languages." Publishers and copyright holders have
objected to the project, whose goal is to digitize millions of texts
and make them available online. Google maintains the project is for the
public good; publishers say that even if full texts are not available
online for protected works, Google is nonetheless violating their
rights by scanning those books.
CNET, 26 September 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6119515.html
LIBRARIES DEVELOP NEW ARCHIVING APPLICATION
Working under the auspices of the International Internet Preservation
Consortium, the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library
have developed a Web curator tool to archive online content. Because
Web pages change constantly, efforts to preserve important online
material present complex challenges for gathering and preserving that
content. The new tool automates the process of harvesting online
content and storing it. Stephen Green, Web archiving program manager at
the British Library, said the tool would initially be focused on sites
deemed important to British culture, such as those of political parties
and about the London bombings of July 7. By the end of the year, the
Web curator tool will be offered as an open source application to other
organizations.
BBC, 26 September 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5382144.stm
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Besides all the references to the National Intelligence Estimate
that said the US is causing more terrorism via its trowback uses
of gunboat diplomacy in the Middle East, several officers in the
command positions in Iraq had the following comments this week.
The officers were, Major General John Batiste, Major General
Paul Eaton, and Colonel Paul Hammes. Batiste was commander
of the 1st Infantry Division, and was also the senior military
aide to Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and blames Congress
for not asking "the tough questions." He also mentioned threats
by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to fire anyone who said
he needed a postwar strategy.
In comments earlier this spring, General Batiste added, "the current
administration repeatedly ignored sound military advice and counsel
with respect to the war plans. I think the principles of war are
fundamental, and we violate those at our own peril."
Around the same time Commanding General Anthony Zinni, of the
Central Command in Iraq had the following additional comments:
"I think we are paying the price for lack of credible planning, or
the lack of a plan. We are throwing away 10 years of planning, in
effect, for underestimating the situation we were going to get into
and for not adhering to the advice that was being given to us by others.''
Major General Eaton said referred to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld
as "incompetent, stragically, operationally, and tactically," and
added "Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we
will see two more years of extraordinaily bad decision making."
Eaton was in command of U.S. efforts to train the Iraq military
until the last election.
Earlier this year he wrote the following to the New York Times:
"Rumsfeld has put the Pentagon at the mercy of his ego, his Cold
Warrior's view of the world and his unrealistic confidence in
technology to replace manpower. As a result, the US Army finds itself
severely undermanned. . .cut to 10 active divisions but asked by the
administration to support a foreign policy that requires at least 12
or 14," [active divisions].
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
The various declassifying of minimal pages of the National
Intelligence Estimate that only support the administration,
but leave out the entire portion that said the U.S. caused
more problems than it solved by invading Iraq.
/
It would cost too much to allow habeas corpus rights to the
prisoners at Guantanamo, etc.
[2 million prosisoners in the U.S. have habeas corpus rights,
what difference if a few hundred more?]
/
U.S. LAW ATTACKS ONLINE GAMBLING
President George W. Bush is expected to sign legislation passed by the
U.S. Congress outlawing Internet gambling in the United States. The
law, called the Safe Port Act, was passed Saturday. The legislation
could halve the $12 billion Internet gambling industry. Several
companies have already suspended operations in the United States.
Red Herring, 2 October 2006
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=18906&hed=Snake+Eyes+for+Online+Gambling
[Of course no one is mentioning that this is not to protect gambling addicts,
but merely becaues the U.S. hasn't figured out a way to tax Internet gambling.]
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or
consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever, including any
action pending on or filed after the date of the enactment of the
Military Commissions Act of 2006, relating to the prosecution,
trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter,
including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military
commissions under this chapter."
That's a section of the "Torture Bill" US Congress just passed.
/
If the balance between copyright and the public domain "is lost,
we will violate the the nature of knowledge itself."
Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, of Brazil
At the opening of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) yesterday in Geneva the Brazilian
Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil warned against losing sight of
"a balance between intellectual property rights and obligations
and the public interest. If such balance is lost," the minister
according to a blog report by a WIPO observer from CPTech said,
"we will violate the nature of knowledge itself." Citing Thomas
Jefferson the minister added that "there would not be any one
thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property than
ideas, whose sharing does not necessarily harm anyone." The WIPO
General Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the
member states. In negotiations that will extend until October 3
the member states will work out the WIPO's program for next year.
/
"I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are
the only ones left supporting me." George W. Bush
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Just as the rich keep getting richer,
and the poor keep getting poorer,
the distance between the various
portions of humanity will increase,
and the reason won't matter. . .
any reason will do. . .the reasons
for wars are usually fabrications
to increase that distance. . . .
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
47% of female students said they would not raise their hands
in class even if they knew the answer for fear of harassment
for being smart.
Source: NPR, Sunday Morning
/
Yahoo mail just passed 250,000,000 [1/4 billion] users.
That is equal to the tnire U.S. population of teens and above.
The U.S. population should reach 300 million officially this week.
*
Electronic Trading Surpasses Mercantile Exchange Pit Trading
Last Thurs might have been the first day on the CME where there
were more commodities traded via electronic trading than on the
actual floor of the exchange. CME = Chicago Mercantile Exchange
[Various single commodities had done this before, not sure if a
grand total of all trade had been a majority electronic before]
/
By the way, for those interested, the official U.S. population
estimates just passed 299 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_10_04_part_1.txt
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