From hart at pglaf.org Wed Oct 18 09:57:03 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Wed Oct 18 09:57:11 2006
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0610180956090.15668@pglaf.org>
pt1a2.o06
pt1b2.o06
Weekly_October_18.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 18, 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
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[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
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Editor's comments appear in [brackets].
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*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests, New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
***eBook Milestones***
21,561 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
19,528 Project Gutenberg US [+ 45] [NOT Including PG Australia]
1,301 Australian eBooks [+ 2] [NOT Included in above line]
352 Gutenberg Europe [+ 0] [NOT Included in above lines]
377 PG PrePrint Site [+ 1] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
21,561 Grand Total [+ 48]
21,558 [by hand count] [+ 48]
[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.]
~16% 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.]
/
18,493 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~266 eBooks per Month for ~69.50 Months
3,413 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
35 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
9,243 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 ~359 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
[Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints]
All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 83 eBooks Per Week In 2006
48 This Week
68 Last Week
116 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
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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
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of human inventions", and has received input from many people that helped
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TEXT TO SPEECH
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http://www.dolphinuk.co.uk or http://www.dolphinusa.com
***BREAK FOR PT1A AND PT1B***
pt1a2.o06
pt1b2.o06
Weekly_October_18.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 18, 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
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 09.50 months of this year, PG produced 3,413 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to Sep 2002 to produce our first 3,413 eBooks!
That's 41 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!!!
48 New eBooks This Week
68 New eBooks Last Week
116 New eBooks This Month [Oct]
359 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
3413 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
====
18,493 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 69.50 Months!
~266 books per month!
21,561 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
17,353 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,208 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
1,301 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
377 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
9,243 Books to Project Gutenberg.
35 added this week.
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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
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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
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Please also note that over 25,000 eBooks are listed via
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You can try a new IPL service at:
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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 #287 of 2006
This Completes Week #41 and Month #09.50 [364 days this year]
77 Days/11 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
8,439 Books To Go To #30,000
We are 15.6% of the way from 20,000 to 30,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
83 Weekly Average in 2006
61 Weekly Average in 2005 [Counting 216 PGEu]
57 Weekly Average in 2005 [Not Counting PGEu]
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
43 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 41 weeks of this year, we have produced 3418 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 09/02 to produce our FIRST 3418 eBooks!!!
That's 41 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3418
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]
/
Sep 2002 A Vindication of Rights of Woman,by Wollstonecraft[vorowxxx.xxx] 3420
[Author: Mary Wollstonecraft; AKA Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin]
Sep 2002 Rebecca Mary, by Annie Hamilton Donnell [rbmryxxx.xxx] 3419
Sep 2002 Captain Brassbound's Conversion by G. Bernard Shaw[brscnxxx.xxx] 3418
[Author: George Bernard Shaw: he preferred just Bernard Shaw]
Sep 2002 The Fortunes of Oliver Horn, by F. Hopkinson Smith[tfoohxxx.xxx] 3417
Sep 2002 William Ewart Gladstone, by James Bryce [gladsxxx.xxx] 3416
Sep 2002 The South Pole, Volume 2, by Roald Amundsen [?tspv2xx.xxx] 3415
[Tr.: A. G. Chater]
Sep 2002 The South Pole, Volume 1, by Roald Amundsen [?tspv1xx.xxx] 3414
[Tr.: A. G. Chater]
Sep 2002 The Blazed Trail, by Stewart Edward White [#5][blztrxxx.xxx] 3413
Sep 2002 The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither, by Bird[gctwtxxx.xxx] 3412
[Author: Isabella L. Bird (Mrs. Bishop)]
Sep 2002 The Stokesley Secret, by Charlotte M. Yonge[CMY10][stkscxxx.xxx] 3411
Sep 2002 The American Spirit in Literature, by Bliss Perry [aslitxxx.xxx] 3410
[Subtitle: A Chronicle of Great Interpreters]
Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope 3409
Sep 2002 Shame of Motley, by Raphael Sabatini[Sabatini #12][shmotxxx.xxx] 3408
The Spell of Egypt, by Robert Hichens 3407
Ragged Lady, Part 2, by William Dean Howells 3406
Ragged Lady, Part 1, by William Dean Howells 3405
April Hopes, by William Dean Howells 3404
Sep 2002 The Register, by William Dean Howells [WH#49][whregxxx.xxx] 3403
Sep 2002 The Parlor Car, by William Dean Howells [WH#48][whplrxxx.xxx] 3402
Sep 2002 The Elevator, by William Dean Howells [WH#47][whelvxxx.xxx] 3401
/
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
6,551,216,355 that would be 21,561 x 65,512,164 = ~1.41 Trillion !!!
With 21,561 eBooks online as of October 18, 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] 65,512,164 x 21,561 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 this week!]
A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.47 Value Per Book To 100 Million
With 21,561 eBooks online as of October 18, 2006 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.46 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.58 when we had 17,353 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 21,561 eBooks in 35 Years and 03.50 Months We Averaged
611 Per Year
51 Per Month
1.67 Per Day
At 3413 eBooks Done In The 287 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
12 Per Day
83 per Week
359 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]
MICROSOFT MAKES EUROPEAN CONCESSIONS WITH VISTA
Following a series of concessions from Microsoft regarding its upcoming
operating system, Vista, the European Commission has backed away from a
threat to delay the European introduction of the new software.
Expressing concerns based on the 2004 antitrust decision by the
commission against Microsoft, the commission warned that the new
operating system, in particular some of the security functions, could
be grounds for further sanctions. In response, Microsoft said it would
allow access to the Vista kernel by companies that make security
products that compete with the Windows Security Center, which is part
of the new operating system. Those companies will be able to develop
security applications that will work with Vista, and certain parts of
Windows Security Center can be defeated when an alternate application
is running on a Vista computer. Some observers had worried that if the
commission had blocked release of Vista, small businesses would have
suffered. Still, the commission said that its decision not to delay
Vista should not be seen as evidence that all of the commission's
concerns have been addressed.
CNET, 16 October 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-6126276.html
CHINESE ALLOW ENGLISH WIKIPEDIA BUT NOT CHINESE
The Chinese government unexpectedly lifted its block of the English
version of Wikipedia, though users inside China still cannot access the
Chinese-language version of the site. China is widely known for
censoring content it deems inflammatory, such as discussions of human
rights in the country or events such as those in Tiananmen Square in
1989. A year ago, access to all of Wikipedia was blocked inside the
country, though officials from Wikipedia said they were never told why
the site was not allowed. Companies that want to operate in China
frequently face the quandary of abiding by the government's strict
restrictions on what is allowed or of not being allowed to operate in
the country at all. After the ban was lifted, users in China were again
able to access Wikipedia--or most of it, at least. One user said that
although he could access material on controversial topics, he could not
see content about Tiananmen Square.
New York Times, 16 October 2006 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/technology/16wikipedia.html
LIBYA TO BUY 1.2 MILLION LAPTOPS FOR STUDENTS
Nicholas Negroponte's nonprofit organization, One Laptop per Child,
has reached an agreement with the government of Libya to provide a
laptop for each of the country's 1.2 million schoolchildren.
Negroponte said that Libya could become the first nation to supply all
schoolchildren with computers, noting that "the U.S. and Singapore are
not even close." Libya's relations with the West have improved since
the country agreed to settle the Pan Am 103 bombing case and to end its
nuclear weapons program. The country, which is no longer listed by the
United States as a sponsor for terrorism, is working to develop a
national economic plan and hoping to become a leader among African
nations. Libya will invest $250 million for the laptops, servers,
technical support, satellite Internet service, and other components of
the infrastructure needed to support the computing program. In his
meeting with Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, Negroponte said the two
men discussed the possibility that Libya might fund the purchase of
laptops for poorer African nations, including Chad, Niger, and Rwanda.
New York Times, 11 October 2006 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/africa/11laptop.html
PAY FOR THE BOOK, OR SEE THE ADS
As the price of college textbooks continues to rise--at twice the rate
of inflation over the past 20 years--faculty and students are seeking
alternatives to traditional texts. For some students, that alternative
is simply not buying all of the materials for their courses, according
to the National Association of College Stores Foundation, which
estimates that 65 percent of students forgo at least some texts.
Companies including Freeload Press offer another option: free textbooks
with advertisements. Founded two years ago, Freeload allows students to
download free PDFs of the textbooks they offer, with ads at the
beginnings and ends of chapters. Students can print the PDFs or, for
about $30, can order a printed copy from Freeload. Despite assurances
from executives at Freeload that the ads do not influence the content
of their texts, some, including Gary Ruskin, argue that an important
line has been crossed. Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert,
a nonprofit that works to limit the influence of ads, said the addition
of ads to textbooks is simply another instance of companies trying to
build consumer loyalty among a young audience with money to spend. Yash
Puri, professor of finance at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell,
said he was not concerned about using a Freeload textbook for his
course because students are surrounded by ads and learn to ignore them.
Christian Science Monitor, 12 October 2006
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1012/p15s01-legn.html
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
The Bush administration's refusal to say anything about 300 million.
Z
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"The Making Of A Quagmire" VERY early Viet Nam predictor.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Iraq will be seen to have followed exactly the same path,
puppet governments, billions lost in scandals, no plan,
no light at the end of the tunnel.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
The U.S. population reached 300 million officially yesterday.
Here are some related stats:
The U.S. is the only developed nation with a population growing
nearly as fast as it did 50 years ago.
Predict 37 years for the U.S. to grow from 300 to 400 million.
It took 39 years for the U.S. to grow from 200 to 300 million.
It took 43 years for the U.S. to grow from 100 to 200 million.
[This includes all the casualties from World Wars One and Two,
and the Korean War, The Great Depression, etc.]
400 million predicted for 2043
300 million October 17, 2006
200 million November 20, 1967
100 million reached in 1914
Since 1967, 55% of U.S. growth has been from immigrants and
their descendants, if the U.S. had managed to cut these off
in 1967 the population would be around 245 million and much
less diverse.
Some interesting statistical changes since 1967 in the U.S.
Women now make 3x as much as they did in 1967, men, 83% more.
[By the way, the median house now costs 83% more, no advantage,
particularly when you realize the houses built to day are meant
to last 50 years, while the houses built 40 years ago are meant
to last 100 years.]
[Even worse when you consider the median national family income
is up only 32% since 1967, but I'm not sure they properly fixed
those statistics ot relate to each other. However, the "buying
power" of the median Amercian hasn't really improved any though
the buying power of the upper class has significanly improved--
because their incomes have grown much faster than inflation for
the last 40 year, much much faster. 48% of Americans say their
well-being is worse than what their parents had. [Parade, Mark
Clements Research, April, 2006.] This is supported by research
from Roper in June that said 2/3 of Americans said the lives of
"the good old days" [1950's -1980's] were better than todays'.
Pew Research looked to the future rather than the past and says
that 50% of U.S. believe life will be worse for their children.
In 1967 the U.S. was 80% white, by 2043, less than 50%.
In 1967 the U.S. was 1% Asian, 5% Hispanics.
Secretary of Commerce gutierrez, a Cuban immigrant, tells us
"I would hate to think that we are going to be low key about this,"
I would hope that we make a big deal about it," but apparently the
Bush administration had other ideas than when President Johnson
gave a speech in front of the national tabulator output in 1967.
[The Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department, where LBJ
gave that speech, 39 years ago.]
Many experts agree with our previous suggestions that 300 million
was reached some time ago, some say a month, some say a year.
In the U.S. there are as many Wal-Mart employees as teachers.
7% of the U.S. population lives in greater New York City.
23% of all U.S. psychologists and psychiatrists live there.
[Does that mean New Yorkers are over three times crazier?]
*
Remember the story below about the Chicago Mercantile Exchange?
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]
This week the Mercantile Exchange bought out it's long time rival,
the Chicago Board of Trde, for 8 billion dollars.
Given 1,000 owners of the Board of Trade [just a guess] that would
be $8 million each, for one of the most major financial commodites
exchanges of the last century.
Compare this to the $800 million received by each of the owners of
YouTube last week, who started up two years ago.
[And you thought the .com boom was over!!!]
/
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_18_part_1.txt
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