From hart at pglaf.org Wed Oct 25 09:45:40 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Wed Oct 25 09:45:46 2006
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0610250944570.18695@pglaf.org>
pt1a3.o06
pt1b3.o06
Weekly_October_25.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 25, 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
///
I am including a self-published not about eBook readers for cell phones
with a warning from some of our other cell phone eBook experts that the
process mentioned below might cost quite a bit more than we expected.
///
I would like to submit an item for the weekly newsletter. I think it is
something Project Gutenberg users will find useful.
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Some Suggestions We Received For The Newsletters
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Divide the Newsletter in Web page URLs so the readers
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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
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***eBook Milestones***
21,611 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
19,576 Project Gutenberg US [+ 48] [NOT Including PG Australia]
1,308 Australian eBooks [+ 7] [NOT Included in above line]
352 Gutenberg Europe [+ 0] [NOT Included in above lines]
378 PG PrePrint Site [+ 1] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
21,614 Grand Total [+ 56]
21,611 [by hand count] [+ 56]
[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
3,469 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
25 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
9,268 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
56 This Week
48 Last Week
172 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.
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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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pt1a3.o06
pt1b3.o06
Weekly_October_25.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 25, 2006 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 09.75 months of this year, PG produced 3,469 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to Oct 2002 to produce our first 3,469 eBooks!
That's 42 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!!!
56 New eBooks This Week
48 New eBooks Last Week
172 New eBooks This Month [Oct]
356 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
3469 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
====
18,549 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 69.50 Months!
~266 books per month!
21,611 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
17,405 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,206 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
1,308 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
378 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
Project Runeberg began operation on December 13, 1992
Distributed Proofreaders began October 22, 2000
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Project Gutenberg of Australia began in August, 2001
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center started in 1997]
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to address people at the European Union Parliament.
Project Gutenberg PrePrints Started January 25, 2006
http://preprints.readingroo.ms
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PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
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9,268 Books to Project Gutenberg.
25 added this week.
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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,
to create a downloadble library of 100,000+ eBooks
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[This list is being updated as the moment, you can get
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Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files
Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files
The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files
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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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It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
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Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.
***
Today Is Day #295 of 2006
This Completes Week #42 and Month #09.75 [364 days this year]
70 Days/10 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
8,310 Books To Go To #30,000
We are 16.1% 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 42 weeks of this year, we have produced 3469 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 10/02 to produce our FIRST 3469 eBooks!!!
That's 42 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3469
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]
The Hand of Ethelberta, by Thomas Hardy 3469
[Subtitle: A Comedy in Chapters]
Oct 2002 Poems by the Way, by William Morris[Wm Morris #11][pmbwyxxx.xxx] 3468
Oct 2002 The Life of Cesare Borgia, by Rafael Sabatini[#15][lcbgaxxx.xxx] 3467
The Foreigner, A Tale of Saskatchewan, by Ralph Connor 3466
(See also #3246, which is a different version)
Under Two Flags, by Ouida [Louise de la Ramee] 3465
Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions, by Rinehart 3464
[Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart]
[Illustrated by May Wilson Preston]
The Boys' Life of Mark Twain, by Albert Bigelow Paine 3463
Oct 2002 More Hunting Wasps, by Jean Henri Fabre [Fabre #5][mhtgwxxx.xxx] 3462
[Often listed as J. H. Fabre or J. Henri Fabre or [J. H.] Henri Fabre]
[Tr.: Alexander Teixeira de Mattos]
Oct 2002 Essays on Life, Art and Science by Samuel Butler 9[esslfxxx.xxx] 3461
Oct 2002 Old Fritz and the New Era, by Muhlbach[Muhlback#4][fritzxxx.xxx] 3460
[Variant spellings: Louise Muhlbach, Luise Muhlbach and Luise von Muhlbach]
Oct 2002 Quotations of John Galsworthy, by David Widger[#2][dwqjgxxx.xxx] 3459
Oct 2002 Science and Health/Key to The Scriptures, by Eddy [shktsxxx.xxx] 3458
[Title: Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures]
[Author: Mary Baker Eddy] [Also index under Christian Science]
Oct 2002 The Man of the Forest, by Zane Grey[Zane Grey #xx][mnforxxx.xxx] 3457
/
Have We Given Away A Trillion Dollars Worth or a Trillion eBooks Yet???
6,552,689,891
65,526,899
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,552,689,891 that would be 21,611 x 65,526,899 = ~1.42 Trillion !!!
With 21,611 eBooks online as of October 25, 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] 65,526,899 x 21,611 x $.71 = ~$1 Trillion
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.47 Value Per Book To 100 Million
With 21,611 eBooks online as of October 25, 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 $.57 when we had 17,405 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 21,611 eBooks in 35 Years and 03.75 Months We Averaged
558 Per Year
46 Per Month
1.53 Per Day
At 3469 eBooks Done In The 295 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
12 Per Day
82 per Week
356 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]
U.S. ROLLS OUT E-PASSPORTS
After lengthy delays resulting from security concerns, the United
States has begun issuing passports equipped with RFID tags. The tags,
which transmit data including the passport holder's photo and
signature, are susceptible to illicit scanners that "skim" the
information from unsuspecting individuals, according to those opposed
to e-passports. The U.S. State Department said it has implemented
measures to address security concerns, including a metallic mesh woven
into the cover of the passport that "makes it nearly impossible to
access the chip when the book is closed." Additionally, starting this
week, all U.S. points of entry will have equipment to read and process
information in e-passports issued by the more than two dozen countries
in the Visa Waiver Program. All of those countries issue e-passports,
and visitors from those nations are not required to obtain a visa to
enter the United States. Critics said U.S. authorities have not
addressed the problems associated with e-passports. Kevin Mahaffey of
security firm Flexilis wrote a report indicating that despite the mesh
in the cover, the passports can still be read if they are open "even a
fraction of an inch."
Internet News, 23 October 2006
http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3639411
JUDGE REFUSES TO DISABLE SPAMHAUS
A judge in Illinois has rejected a petition by e360 Insight to force
the closure of the Internet domain of antispam company Spamhaus. Last
month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
ordered Spamhaus to pay e360 Insight $11.7 million in damages for
blacklisting the company, which keeps users of Spamhaus's antispam
list from accepting messages from the e360 Insight domain. Following
that ruling, e360 Insight asked the court to suspend the spamhaus.org
domain, but Judge Charles Kocoras rejected that request. Blocking the
Spamhaus domain, he said, would prevent the company from engaging in
activities that the court considers legitimate and would be unduly
severe. For its part, Spamhaus insists that e360 Insight is in fact a
spammer. Spamhaus, which is based in the United Kingdom, has also said
it is under no obligation to pay the fine imposed by the Illinois court
because that court has no jurisdiction over Spamhaus's actions.
Silicon.com, 23 October 2006
http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39163463,00.htm
ETS ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF INFORMATION LITERACY TEST
Results from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) indicate generally
poor performance on the organization's new test, the ICT Literacy
Assessment Core Level. ETS introduced the test to measure how
information literate and computer savvy students are. The test was
administered to volunteers at 44 institutions, including high schools
and two- and four-year colleges. Of the roughly 3,000 college students
and 800 high school students who took the test, only 13 percent were
deemed information literate. Officials from ETS noted that because the
test is new, the results are not authoritative or thorough but indicate
important trends. In general, they said, students could identify
relatively credible information from databases and knew that
information from .com Web sites is likely to be less reliable than
information from a .gov or .edu site. Students generally could not,
however, discern bias in online content and were overly willing to
trust suspect material.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 October 2006 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/10/2006101701t.htm
CORNELL OPENS COLLECTION TO MICROSOFT
Microsoft has announced two partners in its book scanning project,
which will compete with Google's controversial Book Search program.
Cornell University will allow Microsoft to scan its library collection,
and Kirtas Technologies will provide high-speed hardware for the
scanning. Unlike Google's program, Microsoft's Windows Live Book
Search will only scan books in the public domain or those whose
copyright owners have granted explicit permission. Librarians from
Cornell will select texts to be scanned and will oversee quality
control for the process. Kirtas claims that its scanning machines are
capable of digitizing 2,400 pages per hour and are gentler that human
hands with the books.
CNET, 18 October 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-6127081.html
WIKIPEDIA COFOUNDER LAUNCHES NEW SITE
One of the founders of Wikipedia has announced a new online
encyclopedia that he hopes will embody the foundation of Wikipedia
while overcoming some of its shortcomings. Larry Sanger's new project,
called Citizendium, will use a number of tactics to elicit credible,
useful content from a community of volunteers while avoiding the kinds
of intentional distortions that have been a problem for Wikipedia. On
Citizendium, contributors must register with their real names, and a
team of editors will enforce a set of community rules. Sanger said that
Wikipedia is an "amazing" resource but believes that "an even better
massive encyclopedia" can be produced by overlaying a system of "gentle
controls" on how content is developed and edited. The creation of
Citizendium will involve a "fork" of the existing Wikipedia content.
All current content from Wikipedia will serve as the basis for
Citizendium. From there, the two collections will evolve and diverge
based on their different approaches.
ZDNet, 16 October 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6126469.html
STUDY SHOWS EVIDENCE OF WEB ADDICTION
A study conducted by researchers at Stanford University indicates
considerable and rising rates of Internet addiction among U.S. users.
The study, which asked more than 2,500 people about their Web habits,
found that almost 14 percent said it was difficult to be offline for
more than a few days. Eight percent said they use the Internet as a
means to escape the real world, and a similar portion admitted to
hiding their Web habits from their partners. Researchers said these
kinds of behaviors are not unlike those exhibited by people with
problems such as alcoholism. According to the study, the profile of a
typical user who has problems with Internet addiction is a single,
college-educated, white male who spends more than 30 hours per week
using the Internet for "non-essential" purposes. Elias Aboujaoude, one
of the researchers in the study, said that it is important to remind
ourselves that despite all the benefits of technology, "it creates real
problems for a subset of people." Indeed, six percent of the
respondents said their addiction had adversely affected their
relationships with other people.
BBC, 18 October 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6062980.stm
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Obviously the greatest headline news being avoided this week
by the major US media is the free press rating list of the
"Reporters Without Borders" based in Paris, France, since the
US has consistently fallen from its initial top 10% ranking
of 17th when the list started down to 53rd this year.
I did LOTS of search integration this morning and came up
with the following compilation from numerous sources, who
obviously dealt with tie scores in different ways, then,
if you want to skip my own compilation, I finally found
the entire listing, but without explanator notes as to
the scoring, which is included.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
The US continues to fall from its initial 17th place,
edge of top 10%, to 53rd, edge of top 1/3, due to the
practice of jailing reporters for political reasons--
Joshua Wolf, who refused to yield a videotape of some
political protestors to a grand jury, not to mention,
of course, the whole Valerie Plame thing about a fake
weapons of mass destruction report concerning Iraq in
which a reporter spent her next half year in jail.
In addition, Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj who works
for Al-Jazeera has been held in Guantanamo since June
of 2002 without being charged and an Associated Press
photographer named Bilal Hussein is being held in the
Iraq jails by the US since April.
"National Security" and "The War On Terrorism" trumps
freedom of the press according to many reports.
Denmark dropped from tied for 1st to 19th because the
Mohammed cartoons were given a very bad time and some
police protection was required for the journalists.
1. Finland
2. Iceland
3. Ireland
4. Netherlands
5. Czech Republic
6. Estonia
7. Norway
8. Slovakia
9. Switzerland.
10. Tie:
10. Hungary
10. Latvia
10. Portugal
10. Slovenia
15. Top 15 all reported to be north European
16. Bolivia big move
16. Austria
16. Canada
19. Bosnia Herzegovina
19. Denmark was tied for 1st
19. New Zealand
19. Trinidad & Tobago
23. Benin
26. Namibia
27. United Kingdom
28.
29.
30.
31. South Korea
32. Greece
32. Mauritius
34. Ghana was 66
35. France was 30 lost 24 places since 1st list
35. Australia
35. Bulgaria
35. Mali
39. Panama was 76
40. Italy
43. Taiwan
44. South Africa
45. Macedonia
45. Cape Verda
45. Mozambique
45. Serbia & Montenegro
48.
51. Japan was 37
52.
53. United States was 44 in 2005, 17 in 2002, the 1st list
53. Botswana
53. Croatia
53. Tonga
57.
58. Hong Kong was 39 in 2005 and 18 in 2002 on the 1st list
58. Fiji
58. Poland
58. Romania or 61, depending
62.
66. Togo was 95
66. Madagascar was 97
73. Kuwait
75. Brazil
76. Argentina
77. Mauritania was 138 in 2004
78. Senegal
79. United Arab Emirates, perhaps 77, or a tie as listed twice
80. Qatar
85. Moldova
89. Georgia
95. Niger
95. Seychelles was 72 down due to tough election
98. Ivory Coast/Cote d'Ivoire was 139
103. Indonesia
105. India
106. Ukraine
107. Lebanon was 56 1st survey
109. Jordan
112. Camaroon
125. Burundi was 90
126. Algeria
135. Israel
137. Equatorial Guinea
140. Zimbabwe
141. Sri Lanka was 51st in 2002
142. Philippines
142. Congo
144. Somalia
146. Singapore
147. Russia
149. Gambia
149. Yemen down 4
151. Belarus
154. Iraq
157. Palastinian Authority
Worst on the list were:
159. Nepal listed twice this way
160. Ethiopia was 131
155. Turkmenistan
156. Eritrea
157. Cuba
158. Burma
159. China
160. Iran
161. Saudi Arabia
or another reversed those near N. Korea
155. Saudi Arabia
156. Iran
157. China
158. Burma
159. Cuba
160. Eritrea 166 on one report
161, Turkmenistan 167
162. North Korea [last]
161. Saudi Arabia
163, China
164. Burma
165. Cuba
166. Eritrea
167. Turkmenistan
168. North Korea
Ah. . .after all my searches I finally keyed in large numbers
of the countries listed above and got ONE last big hit!
1 Finland 0,50
- Iceland 0,50
- Ireland 0,50
- Netherlands 0,50
5 Czech Republic 0,75
6 Estonia 2,00
- Norway 2,00
8 Slovakia 2,50
- Switzerland 2,50
10 Hungary 3,00
- Latvia 3,00
- Portugal 3,00
- Slovenia 3,00
14 Belgium 4,00
- Sweden 4,00
16 Austria 4,50
- Bolivia 4,50
- Canada 4,50
19 Bosnia and Herzegovina 5,00
- Denmark 5,00
- New Zealand 5,00
- Trinidad and Tobago 5,00
23 Benin 5,50
- Germany 5,50
- Jamaica 5,50
26 Namibia 6,00
27 Lithuania 6,50
- United Kingdom 6,50
29 Costa Rica 6,67
30 Cyprus 7,50
31 South Korea 7,75
32 Greece 8,00
- Mauritius 8,00
34 Ghana 8,50
35 Australia 9,00
- Bulgaria 9,00
- France 9,00
- Mali 9,00
39 Panama 9,50
40 Italy 9,90
41 El Salvador 10,00
- Spain 10,00
43 Taiwan 10,50
44 South Africa 11,25
45 Cape Verde 11,50
- Macedonia 11,50
- Mozambique 11,50
- Serbia and Montenegro 11,50
49 Chile 11,63
50 Israel 12,00
51 Japan 12,50
52 Dominican Republic 12,75
53 Botswana 13,00
- Croatia 13,00
- Tonga 13,00
- United States of America 13,00
57 Uruguay 13,75
58 Fiji 14,00
- Hong-Kong 14,00
- Poland 14,00
- Romania 14,00
62 Central African Republic 14,50
- Cyprus (North) 14,50
- Guinea-Bissau 14,50
- Honduras 14,50
66 Madagascar 15,00
- Togo 15,00
68 Ecuador 15,25
69 Nicaragua 15,50
70 Burkina Faso 16,00
- Kosovo 16,00
- Lesotho 16,00
73 Congo 17,00
- Kuwait 17,00
75 Brazil 17,17
76 Argentina 17,30
77 Mauritania 17,50
- Senegal 17,50
- United Arab Emirates 17,50
80 Albania 18,00
- Qatar 18,00
82 Paraguay 18,25
83 Timor-Leste 18,50
84 Liberia 19,00
85 Moldova 19,17
86 Mongolia 19,25
87 Haiti 19,50
88 Tanzania 19,82
89 Georgia 21,00
90 Guatemala 21,25
91 Angola 21,50
92 Malaysia 22,25
93 Comoros 22,50
- Zambia 22,50
95 Niger 24,50
- Seychelles 24,50
97 Morocco 24,83
98 Bhutan 25,00
- C??d'Ivoire 25,00
- Turkey 25,00
101 Armenia 25,50
- Malawi 25,50
103 Indonesia 26,00
- Sierra Leone 26,00
105 India 26,50
- Ukraine 26,50
107 Lebanon 27,00
108 Cambodia 27,25
109 Guinea 27,50
- Jordan 27,50
111 Bahrein 28,00
112 Cameroon 28,25
- Peru 28,25
114 Gabon 28,50
115 Venezuela 29,00
116 Uganda 29,83
117 Tajikistan 30,00
118 Kenya 30,25
119 USA Territories 31,50
120 Nigeria 32,23
121 Djibouti 33,00
122 Thailand 33,50
123 Kyrgyzstan 34,00
124 Chad 35,50
125 Burundi 39,83
126 Algeria 40,00
127 Swaziland 40,50
128 Kazakhstan 41,00
- Rwanda 41,00
130 Afghanistan 44,25
131 Colombia 44,75
132 Mexico 45,83
133 Egypt 46,25
134 Palestinian Authority 46,75
135 Azerbaijan 47,00
- Israel (Territorial) 47,00
137 Bangladesh 48,00
- Equatorial Guinea 48,00
139 Sudan 48,13
140 Zimbabwe 50,00
141 Sri Lanka 50,75
142 Democratic Republic Congo51,00
- Philippines 51,00
144 Maldives 51,25
- Somalia 51,25
146 Singapore 51,50
147 Russia 52,50
148 Tunisia 53,75
149 Gambia 54,00
- Yemen 54,00
151 Belarus 57,00
152 Libya 62,50
153 Syria 63,00
154 Iraq 66,83
155 Vietnam 67,25
156 Laos 67,50
157 Pakistan 70,33
158 Uzbekistan 71,00
159 Nepal 73,50
160 Ethiopia 75,00
161 Saudi Arabia 76,00
162 Iran 90,88
163 China 94,00
164 Burma 94,75
165 Cuba 95,00
166 Eritrea 97,50
167 Turkmenistan 98,50
168 North Korea 109,00
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
US Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert versus
those who say they told him about Rep. Foley.
/
"We will no longer say `We will stay the course.'"
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
The above does well engouth.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Halliburton will be found to have crossed many lines
clearly demarked, concerning where the billions went
and the hiring of coerced and indentured laborers.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
The Reporters Without Borders should get all the credit.
/
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_25_part_1.txt
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