From hart at pglaf.org Wed Nov 8 09:33:37 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Wed Nov 8 09:33:46 2006
Subject: [gweekly] Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0611080933060.13607@pglaf.org>
pt1a1.n06
pt1b1.n06
Weekly_Novemeber_08.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 08, 2006 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971*******
This is possibly my last Newsletter for a while, as I may, all thing
permitting, be on a speaking tour until near the end of the year.
I did a couple presentations over the weekend, but have not left
on the extended tour yet.
We are experimenting with a new format we will try to send shortly.
/
Messages About eBooks For Cell Phones
Cell Phone eBooks, by John Mizzi
Cell phone technology is moving in leaps and bounds and the price is
falling as all other computer technologies. Bandwidth between phones
and the web is also increasing, but the number of users using the phone
to browse the web is not increasing as it should be. This is due to the
excessive price that most phone operators charge for the download of data
from web to phone. If there is a download plan it is usually for a tiny
amount of data such as 8MB per month. So as things stand now, phone WAP
[Wireless Application Protocol] and Web browsing are limited to wealthy
phone users only. This is a very sad fact because cell / mobile phones
can be used to receive and send information from anywhere at anytime without
having to have a power hungry computer in front of you running
down those big batteries.
The cheapest way to read on cell phones is by loading the documents
straight to the phone from the computer using cable, bluetooth, or infra
red ports, NOT to pay through the nose for online billing charges that
wildly exceed the costs of the same number of converation minutes.
Some smartphones can take limited size PDF files and usually these
smartphones are very expensive to the average user. This problem has
been resolved at http://www.mobilebooks.org .
There you can freely download over 5,000 converted Project Gutenberg
ebooks to work on most java enabled cell phones (95% of modern phones).
These ebooks can be downloaded to cell / mobile phones, straight from
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computer using cable, bluetooth or infra red. All the 5000+ cell phone
Gutenberg ebooks are available for free to the public. So try it and
have fun reading anytime and anywhere.
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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Australia. To this end we are happy to receive donations of ebooks to add
to our collection.
SF, in this context can mean: Science, Speculative, Superhero, Swords,
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Of course, we are only able to accept works that are public domain in
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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
Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com
*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests, New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
***eBook Milestones***
21,799 eBooks As Of Today At These Four PG Sites
19,684 Project Gutenberg US [+ 44] [NOT Including PG Australia]
1,361 Australian eBooks [+ 31] [NOT Included in above line]
373 Gutenberg Europe [+ 20] [NOT Included in above lines]
378 PG PrePrint Site [+ 0] [NOT Inclucded in above lines]
21,796 Grand Total [+ 95]
21,793 [by hand count] [+ 95]
21,799 [by programmed count] [+ 95]
[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.]
~18% 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.]
/
18,731 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's ~268 eBooks per Month for ~70.00 Months
3,651 New eBooks in 2006 at These Four Sites
35 New eBooks From Distributed Proofreaders
9,320 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 ~365 eBooks Per Month This Year!!!
[Including PGAu, PGEu and PrePrints]
Enough Each Month To Read A Book A Day For A Whole Year!!!
All Four Sites Combined Are Averaging 83 eBooks Per Week In 2006
95 This Week
87 Last Week
95 This Month [Nov]
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
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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.n06
pt1b1.n06
Weekly_Novemeber_08.txt
The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 08, 2006 PT1
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971*******
This is possibly my last Newsletter for a while, as I may, all thing
permitting, be on a speaking tour until near the end of the year.
I did a couple presentations over the weekend, but have not left
on the extended tour yet.
We are experimenting with a new format we will try to send shortly.
***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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Click on "texts" to get started, feel free to pick up any
of the eBooks you would like to work on.
Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive!
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 10.00 months of this year, PG produced 3,651 new eBooks.
It took us from Jul 1971 to Jan 2003 to produce our first 3,651 eBooks!
That's 44 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!!!
95 New eBooks This Week
87 New eBooks Last Week
95 New eBooks This Month [Nov]
365 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
3651 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
====
18,731 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 70.00 Months!
~268 books per month!
21,799 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
17,486 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,313 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
[Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints]
1,361 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
[This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted
at the U.S. site: www.gutenberg.org ]
373 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]
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
9,320 Books to Project Gutenberg.
35 added this week.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
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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
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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 #308 of 2006
This Completes Week #44 and Month #10.00 [364 days this year]
54 Days/09 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
8,201 Books To Go To #30,000
We are 18.0% 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 44 weeks of this year, we have produced 3651 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 01/03 to produce our FIRST 3651 eBooks!!!
That's 44 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #3651
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]
Jan 2003 The Square Root of 4 To A Million Places[Math #19][4sqrtxxx.zip] 3651
Jan 2003 Selections From American Poetry, by Marg. Carhart [apoetxxx.xxx] 3650
[With Special Reference to Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier]
[Author: Margeret Sprague Carhart]
(Author Note: the following 4 eBooks, #3646-3649, are all by the American
Novelist and Historian, Winston Churchill)
The Dwelling Place of Light, Complete, by Winston Churchill 3649
The Dwelling Place of Light, Volume 3, by Winston Churchill 3648
The Dwelling Place of Light, Volume 2, by Winston Churchill 3647
The Dwelling Place of Light, Volume 1, by Winston Churchill 3646
Jan 2003 L'Etourdi, par Moliere [Jean-Baptiste Poquelin][#4[?trdixxx.xxx] 3645
[Language: French]
Jan 2003 Vie de Moliere[Jean-Baptiste Poquelin], Voltaire#2[?viemxxx.xxx] 3644
[Language: French]
Jan 2003 Quotations from Albert Paine's Writings, by Widger[dwqabxxx.xxx] 3643
[Title: Quotations from Albert B. Paine's Writings, #11 by David Widger]
Jan 2003 The Belgian Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins [LFP #3][bgtwnxxx.xxx] 3642
Jan 2003 Who Cares?, by Cosmo Hamilton [caresxxx.xxx] 3641
Jan 2003 Literary Taste, by Arnold Bennett [Bennett #3][tastexxx.xxx] 3640
Jan 2003 Diary Of Pedestrian In Cashmere & Thibet by Wright[dpcatxxx.xxx] 3639
/
Have We Given Away A Trillion eBooks/Trillion Dollars Yet???
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,555,650,122 that would be 21,799 x 65,556,501 = ~1.43 Trillion !!!
With 21,799 eBooks online as of November 08, 2006 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.70 from each book from
Project Gutenberg to have yielded $1 trillion.
[1% world population x #eBooks] 65,556,501 x 21,799 x $.70 = ~$1 Trillion
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.46 Value Per Book To 100 Million
With 21,799 eBooks online as of November 01, 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 17,486 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 21,799 eBooks in 35 Years and 04.00 Months We Averaged
617 Per Year
51 Per Month
1.69 Per Day
At 3651 eBooks Done In The 308 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
12 Per Day
83 per Week
365 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]
ASE EXPECTED TO CLARIFY ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
A lawsuit filed against Target is expected to establish an important
ruling concerning the level of access Web site operators are required
to provide to users with disabilities. Specifically, the suit alleges
that Target's Web site failed to make its site accessible to screen
readers, which help visually impaired users read and navigate online.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was enacted in 1990,
sufficiently predates the Web that it provides little guidance on what
access retailers are required to offer online. Jane Jarrow, president
of Disability Access Information and Support, said that the online
education sector is at particularly high risk for discovering that it
has unmet legal obligations for users with disabilities. Many online
programs rely heavily on chat rooms, a technology that does not
accommodate screen readers well, leaving blind and visually impaired
students at a significant disadvantage in their efforts to complete
coursework online. A recently changed federal regulation allows online
programs to qualify for federal financial aid, but institutions that
seek to take advantage of this program must meet the terms of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which stipulates that Web sites must be
accessible to all users to qualify for federal aid.
New York Times, 6 November 2006 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/technology/06ecom.html
SPANISH JUDGE SAYS DOWNLOADING IS LEGAL
A judge in Spain has dismissed a copyright infringement case, saying
that the practice of trading songs over the Internet does not
constitute a crime. In his ruling, Judge Paz Aldecoa said that sharing
files online is a "socially accepted and widely practiced behavior"
intended merely "to obtain copies for private use." Because the man in
the case had not sought to make money from his activities, said
Aldecoa, he could not be found guilty of any crime. The prosecutor in
the case had sought a two-year sentence for the man. An organization
that represents the Spanish music industry rejected the judge's
decision, saying that downloading copyrighted material is indeed
illegal and that it would appeal the ruling. Justice Minister Juan
Fernando Lopez Aguilar noted that although the law does include some
gray areas for personal use of such material, the legal system must
also protect the rights of artists.
Houston Chronicle, 2 November 2006
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4306186.html
REPORT PREDICTS GROWTH IN ONLINE EDUCATION
A new report from Eduventures suggests that the market for online
education has considerable room to grow. In a survey of 2,000 people
who are planning to enroll in college, 19 percent were interested in an
online-only program, 18 percent in mostly online programs, and 14
percent in programs that offer equal time online and face-to-face. The
data show that students just out of high school are most interested in
a traditional college experience. As age rises, up to the 35-55 range,
students are more interested in online education, reflecting working
adults' need for the convenience of online classes. According to
Richard Garrett, author of the report, online education has failed to
remove geography as a factor in educational choices, defying
predictions of just a few years ago. Even when considering online
education, he said, most students still express a preference for a
local campus, at least one that is in the state where they live.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 November 2006
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/11/2006110101t.htm
INTERNET BILL OF RIGHTS PROPOSED
Supporters of an Internet bill of rights made their case for such an
effort at the Internet Governance Forum, a United Nations meeting in
Athens. According to Robin Gross of civil liberties group IP Justice,
such a document is vital to ensuring that the human rights and
liberties "enjoyed in the traditional age must move with us to the
digital age." Because the Internet is a "place of conflict," said
Stefano Rodota, former head of the Council of European Data Protection
Agencies, a bill of Internet rights is necessary to ensure that the
Internet remains a "place to give citizenship and democracy new
opportunities." Specifics of what exactly the bill would include were
not discussed, though proponents agreed that the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights would be a good starting point. Critics of an Internet
bill of rights argued that sufficient structures already exist to
accomplish the stated goals of the bill of rights, and they noted that
such a document would not be legally binding for any country or corporation.
BBC, 1 November 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6106452.stm
GOOGLE PLEDGES TO TAKE YOUTUBE STRAIGHT
Google, which recently announced plans to purchase YouTube for $1.65
billion, is reportedly working to move the video-sharing site from a
source of frequent copyright violations to a service that compensates
copyright owners for material that appears on the site. Some analysts
said that the only reason YouTube has not previously been challenged is
that it had little cash. With Google behind it, the operation becomes a
much more lucrative target for copyright enforcement efforts. YouTube
has developed technology to address copyright infringement issues, but
Google is also said to be in talks with major media outlets to come to
an arrangement under which their content can be used in exchange for a
share of ad revenue. CBS, NBC, News Corp., and Time Warner have
reportedly all been approached by Google to negotiate over content.
BBC, 3 November 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6112826.stm
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
helsea Clinton was "not on the list" when she tried to vote yesterday,
but, unlike large numbers of other registered voters who were sent away
when they tried to vote, she was allowed to vote and nothing said about
having to use a provisional ballot. However, apparently she had to say
she was who she said she was in an official affadvit and then vote on a
paper ballot rather than by machine.
"Her vote will count," said John Ravitz,
Executive Director of the Board of Elections of New York City.
This story was not covered by any of the major media I am aware of.
OK, they finally did report it in her local paper, The New York Times.
"Arrogance combined with incompetence" is a term being used to describe
the voting officials in many locales: but obviously being the daughter
of a former president and perhaps the next president trumps arrogance--
at least arrogance of a certain kind--but, when you some to think about
such things, perhaps another kind of arrogance is what made them give a
ballot to someone who was "not on the list" when you or I would have to
be said to have no alternative other than to be arrested if we insisted
on separate but equal treatment.
In other more reported stories it was reported that some officials were
not even on the ball enough to set the voting machines to zero before a
new election started, and this caused major difficulties in some states
where this could decide between the major candidates, where recounts to
make such decisions are already being started. In other states a sales
representative from some voting machine vendors somehow managed to slip
away the night before without even testing the machines, and when first
voter attempts were made, nothing happened at all, and judges have been
harsh in their comments about "take the money and run," to the media in
today's news, and will hopefully be equally harsh on the bench warrants
that should be bringing these people back for accountability.
Prediction: it will only get worse in coming elections, until there is
finally some real "election reform."
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
The above will do nicely, given stories about other people identified as
disenfranchised voters in the last 4 U.S. elections.
Speaking of those previous elections, Katharine Harris, partner of a now
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N, John Bolton, in the infamous "pregnant chad"
case that led the President Bush first gaining the White House, did not,
sadly to say, do equally well as Mr. Bolton. Ms. Harris was denounced--
or was it renounced--by the Republican National Committee even though it
was an election that could have been won against a vulnerable Democratic
candidate, Bill Nelson, the inclumbent senator.
Ms. Harris had parlayed her 15 minutes of fame for certifying Mr. Bush--
before recounts finished--as the victor over Vice President Al Gore, for
the presidency in the 2000 election. . .into two terms in Congress, then
set her goals upon the upper house, which was apparently too lofty of an
ambition in the eyes the Republican National Committee.
Ms. Harris refused to concede defeat even when behind by about 20%.
Mr. Bolton still has not been confirmed as amabassador to the U.N.
and that still gets mentioned once in a while on Sunday AM TV shows.
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"We won!"
"We lost."
"It ain't over until it's over."
"Those who seek to gain power are afraid of losing/sharing it."
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Recounts will last more than until the next Newsletter.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
While one party's incumbents were touting record low unemployment there
was no mention by them concerning the fact that many more of the jobs a
current count includes are of the "would like like fries with that" job
description, at least one major media outlet did mention that new jobs,
such as they were, would often include the phrase:
"Would you like to super-size that?"
Perhaps someone has actually been paying attention to what I write.
;-)
/
There were 50,000 "earmarks" in Congress this past year, while only the
paltry total of 4,000 in the year before the Republicans swept into the
corridors of power with Newt Gingrich, who was forced to resigne and an
awesome "Contract With America" that seems to have been rewritten a few
times by its author and/or Karl Rove.
/
Top management pay levels rose by another 20% in the past year, as rich
continued to pay themselves more and more compared to normal salaries--
at 20% per year, it only takes 3.5 years to double salaries. Even if a
worker gets a cost of living increase every single year, which hardly a
single percent actually receive, that just keeps them up to inflation--
not any real extra buying power such as if their salaries doubled every
3.5 years, quadrupled every 7 years, or octupuled every 10.5 years.
/
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_11_08_part_1.txt
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