From hart at pglaf.org Wed Oct 11 09:51:57 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Wed Oct 11 09:52:04 2006
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0610110951170.27995@pglaf.org>
pt1a1.o06
pt1b1.o06
Weekly_October_11.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 11, 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
For now I am leaving PT1a and PT1b combined.
Please also let me know if you think these Newsletters are a waste of
time or if you think I/we should keep doing them.
Thanks!
Michael
Some Suggestions We Received For The Newsletters
0.
Several people have merely suggested to other readers
that they start from both ends and read to the middle
and thus they will get the highlights first, and then
the regular features, requests, etc. that stay pretty
much the same from issue to issue.
I would agree with this suggestion, and would simply,
for my own edification, also read the "Flashback," as
I find it interesting to see Project Gutenberg eBooks
as they appeared in our catalog x years ago.
1.
Divide the Newsletter in Web page URLs so the readers
could just jump to whatever portions they wanted.
[This would take some additional labor by someone who
was more familiar with writing web pages than I.]
You should already be able to jump to whichever parts
you want to read. . .simply use your search commands,
search for "*" plus the section header as outlined in
The Table of Contents.
2.
Redivide PT1 of the Weekly Newsletter into two parts.
[This would create a lot more work for whomever edits
the Newsletters, which probably wouldn't be so bad if
that were their only responsibility. I work to point
of exhaustion nearly every single day, and I need for
things to become easier rather than harder. Hence my
requests for anyone who would like to be editor: the
format of the Newsletter would be their choice and we
could either turn over the statistics to them, or our
stats people could simply send in that portion, ahead
of the deadline by an hour or two. We would continue
to encourage our readers to send in news items not in
the main regular media coverage.]
*
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to our collection.
SF, in this context can mean: Science, Speculative, Superhero, Swords,
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Please see our WANTED list at http://gutenberg.net.au/wanted.html for
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As always, ebooks by Australian authors and of general Australian interest
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Editor's comments appear in [brackets].
Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org
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*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests, New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
***eBook Milestones***
21,510 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
19,483 Project Gutenberg US [+ 62] [NOT Including PG Australia]
1,299 Australian eBooks [+ 6] [NOT Included in above line]
352 Gutenberg Europe [+ 0] [NOT Included in above lines]
376 PG PrePrint Site [+ 0] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
21,513 Grand Total [+ 68]
21,510 [by hand count] [+ 68]
[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.]
~15% 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.]
/
18,445 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~264 eBooks per Month for ~69.25 Months
3,365 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
42 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
9,207 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 ~364 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
[Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints]
All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 84 eBooks Per Week In 2006
68 This Week
79 Last Week
68 This Month [Oct]
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 ~2.8 years from Oct. 2003 to Jun. 2006 from 10,000 to 20,000
Not counting the addition of The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center's
Receipt of ~100,000 eBooks from 125+ Other eLibraries Worldwide which
started in March, 2003.
*
[Daily PrePrints stats at http://preprints.readingroo.ms/]
Please note that sometimes it takes a few weeks for entire
collections to fully appear in the PrePrints Section, thus
the count sometimes jumps by a large number when the files
are eventually completed and added in. Also note that the
PrePrint files are just that, PrePrints, and thus may move
later to other locations, including the main collection or
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center, etc. For example,
on June 14, 200 WAP compatible cell phone eBooks appeared,
and will likely be moved to other collection points later.
The entire process of working out the details just to send
them to the PrePrints Section took well over a month.
Even with the speeded up process of the PrePrints Section,
it still takes a certain amount of time to collect and put
such a large collection online in a proper manner.
*
***Introduction
[Ignore for the moment]
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing. Note bene
that PT1 is now being sent as PT1A and PT1B.
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
hart@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***
pt1a1.o06
pt1b1.o06
Weekly_October_11.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 11, 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>
*
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but you should get all the files when you pass through
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of the eBooks you would like to work on.
Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive!
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 09.25 months of this year, PG produced 3,365 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to Jun 2002 to produce our first 3,365 eBooks!
That's 40 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!!!
68 New eBooks This Week
79 New eBooks Last Week
68 New eBooks This Month [Oct]
364 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
3365 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
====
18,445 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 69.25 Months!
~266 books per month!
21,510 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
17,301 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,212 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
1,299 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]
You may also want to look at Project Runeberg [Scandinavian eBooks]
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
9,207 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
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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.
There are ~185,000 separate downloadable files,
and presuming 45% are reduntant or are required
at the level of more than one file per book:
The number of individual eBooks now is about 100,000.
Thus the grand total of eBooks at Project Gutenberg
is 21,000+ created by Project Gutenberg volunteers,
and 100,000 donated from over 125 other eLibraries,
to create a downloadble library of 100,000+ eBooks
plus 80,000 donated from over 100 other eLibraries,
to create a downloadble library of 100,000+ eBooks
*
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
***
Please also note that over 25,000 eBooks are listed via
The Online Books Page, of which over 6,300 are from PG.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar
listing which is now in limbo. If anyone knows what is
happening with the IPL, please let us know. Inquiries,
made months ago, and again recently, have not turned up
any current information.
You can try a new IPL service at:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/
It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which
has now been surpassed by the Online Books Page.
Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.
***
Today Is Day #280 of 2006
This Completes Week #40 and Month #09.25 [364 days this year]
84 Days/12 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
8,490 Books To Go To #30,000
We are 15.0% of the way from 20,000 to 30,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
84 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]
*** Permanent Requests For Assistance:
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***
Statistical Review
In the 40 weeks of this year, we have produced 3365 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 07/02 to produce our FIRST 3365 eBooks!!!
That's 40 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3365
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]
/
A Hazard of New Fortunes, Part First, by William Dean Howells 3366
Their Wedding Journey, by William Dean Howells 3365
Dr. Breen's Practice, by William Dean Howells 3364
Fennel and Rue, by William Dean Howells 3363
The Kentons, by William Dean Howells 3362
The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son, by Chesterfield 3361
[Author: The Earl of Chesterfield] [Intro.: Oliver H. G. Leigh]
Letters to His Son, 1766-1771, by The Earl of Chesterfield 3360
/
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 300 million right now!]
U.S. 299,955,517
World 6,549,741,745
16:39 GMT (EST+5) Oct 11, 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 21,510 eBooks online as of October 11, 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 17,301 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 21,510 eBooks in 35 Years and 03.25 Months We Averaged
610 Per Year
51 Per Month
1.67 Per Day
At 3365 eBooks Done In The 280 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
12.0 Per Day
84 per Week
364 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]
LITERACY PROJECT PORTAL LAUNCHED
[Of course, Project Gutenberg, perhaps the largest literacy project,
was not contacted about this.]
The Literacy Project, a portal to connect literacy organizations around
the world, was announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. It was
created in a collaboration among Google, the Frankfurt Book Fair
literacy campaign, and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning.
Google's new online service lets teachers, organizations, and people
interested in literacy use the Internet to search for and share
relevant information through blogs, videos, and groups. Searchers can
also locate literacy organizations using a zoomable world map.
BBC, 4 October 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5403456.stm
DRAFT REPORT FROM NIST DETAILS RFID RISKS
[Of course this is only about risk to management, not to those who
might have a medical risk, or who could be located by terrorists
via their RFIDs]
A draft report from the National Institute for Standards and Technology
(NIST) covers some of the security and privacy risks of using radio
frequency identification (RFID) technology. Agencies must decide how
much information to include on the RFID tags and how to protect it. If
the tag is tied to a back-end database, for example, an intruder could
use an RFID reader as a back door to the database unless it has been
properly secured with access controls, password protection, and
cryptography. According to the report, "When practitioners adhere to
sound security engineering principles, RFID technology can help a wide
range of organizations and individuals realize substantial productivity
gains and efficiencies." The report's guidance is intended to help
current and future RFID users understand the risks and the best-known
safeguards.
Federal Computer Week, 3 October 2006
http://www.fcw.com/article96300-10-03-06-Web
WINDOWS VISTA ANTIPIRACY TECHNOLOGY LOCKS PCS
[Just one more thing between you and your computer. . .I keep finding
that Windows has taken over nearly all my networking capabilities the
first few minutes I turn on MY computers, doing who knows what, since
I have turned off all the updates and other things I could find. ANY
suggestions of how I can turn of the rest???]
Microsoft has embedded antipiracy technology in Windows Vista that
locks a PC if the operating system isn't activated using a legitimate
product registration key within 30 days of installation. The system
will run with reduced functionality until activated. The technology is
part of Microsoft's new Software Protection Platform and will be part
of future versions of all Microsoft products, said Cori Hartje,
director of Microsoft's Windows Genuine Software Initiative. Scheduled
for wide availability in January, Vista is the successor to Windows XP.
ZDNet, 4 October 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6122462.html
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
While nearly every media outlet is once again filled with
press releases from Google and YouTube, you probably have
not heard much about the fact that Google tried competing
with YouTube and never really got their program running--
hence the $1.65 billion takeover of YouTube.
It would appear that Google has been sucked into the Brave
New World of "Infotainment."
"If you can't beat them, buy them!"
Wasn't that once the motto of MicroSoft???
Or was it the motto of CBS when they bought Katie Couric?
Do you think the new merger will be called:
Yougle ???
or
GooTube ???
Google's eBook projects seem to be working about as well,
even with a large handful of billion dollar libraries to
help them with something they don't know anything about.
Do you think I should sell Project Gutenberg to Google?
For more or less thatn $1.65 billion?
/
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
Lancet, one of the major world medical journals, has reported
that the number of deaths attributed to the U.S invasion of
Iraq since 3 1/2 years ago is about 2/3 million.
The latest figure announced by President Bush was under 5%
of that, at some 20,000, perhaps double that from sources
inside the new Iraqi government.
In the study it was reported that at least 90% of the deaths
were accomanied by a death certificate, so it might be a low
estimate, given that may of the deaths may be unreported, or
not officially recorded.
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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.
*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
/
More and more people prefer text messaging to phone or personal
face to face contact.
Silicon Valley Cultures Project
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/connect/connect.php?story=dispatch/2006/1
0/09/20061009-F1-00.html
/
YouTube hands out 100 million 10 minute or less videos per day!
/
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_11_part_1.txt
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