*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, July 14, 2004 PT1* *****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971****** REMEMBER THE BASTILLE!!!
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[email protected] eBook Milestones We have now averaged 400 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971!!! 13,225 eBooks As Of Today!!! 6,175 to go to 20,000 We Are Nearly 1/3 of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000!!!
The first Newsletter of our 34th year!!! *** It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~3 years from 2001 to 2004 for our last 10,000 *** [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.] Today, and until we actually GET new Newsletter editors who want to do another portion, there will be only 2 parts. . .this is Part 1, and the eBook listings in Part 2 [New Project Gutenberg Documents]. [Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
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We Are Averaging About 370 eBooks Per Month This Year 86 per week *** TWO Headline Stories from July 8th *** ``Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey released today [July 8, 2004]. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups. The study also documents an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002, representing a loss of 20 million potential readers. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade. The findings were announced today by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia during a news conference at the New York Public Library.'' (from the NEA summary, by Ann Puderbaugh) * [In response to this decline in reading, the Thoreau Society, caretakers of one of the greatest legacies of literature and personal freedom, has law enforcement personnel protecting their physical and literary turf, as below, in a move that must have Henry David Thoreau rotating rapdily enough in his grave to require high-endurance motor oil.] Here is Supreme Court Plaintiff Eric Eldred's personal account of this, reprinted with his permission: On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Eric Eldred wrote: Today (July 8, 2004) I took the Internet Bookmobile to Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. It is the 150th anniversary of H. D. Thoreau's book "Walden." The Thoreau Society is having a dawn to dusk reading. After an hour of having readers print and take away free copies of "Walden," I was asked by the Walden Pond Reservation police to pack up and leave and threatened with arrest. I left. The park superintendent told me I could not pass out free literature without a permit. And she would not give me a permit because, as she explained, the state park gets money from a concession by the Thoreau Society, which operates a store that sells "Walden"--and I was competing with them by giving away free copies. There is no place to park at Walden Pond except in the state parking lot, for which I paid $5. Integral to the Internet Bookmobile concept is showing citizens how we can become our own publishers by means of the free Internet and new print-on-demand technology. It is not just giving away free books--readers actually learn how to make the books themselves. It promotes the sharing ethos of the Internet and free culture and therefore is a threat to the established publishing industry and the media giants that control our culture. The Internet Bookmobile is
sponsored by the Internet Archive and Anywhere Books. Evidently members of the Thoreau Society, charged with his legacy, are now in the business of making money off him and are using their political power to suppress the free culture of which he would be proud. The government trustees of the land, who once jailed Thoreau, are now more interested in making money themselves instead of helping to spread his message. Shame. Teachers and librarians and ordinary citizens need to master new technology and use it for appropriate purposes. We can use these tools to further our culture. But we can't do so if we are threatened with arrest for giving away "Walden." I am having difficulty getting invitations to schools and libraries for the Bookmobile; I wonder why. Learn about the Internet Archive Bookmobile at http://www.archive.org/texts/bookmobile.php and http://www.archive.org/iathreads/uploaded-files/EricEldred-flyer.pdf The book I wanted to give away is formatted at http://eldritchpress.org/Walden5.sxw (or .doc) (It works best if you have Baskerville Old Face font--sorry, I wasn't able to save a good PDF version from OpenOffice.) And from a later message: Walden exists online in several other formats, such as in Project Gutenberg and the Electronic Text Center of Virginia. Now is a good time to read or re-read the book, don't you think? [End of Eric Eldred's comments] ***and two more*** [My friends can tell you that I predicted this the first time I heard of cheap RFID tags for dogs. . .it was only a matter of time before a movement to keep track of people would use the same kind of RFID tag] RADIO KIDS IN JAPAN School officials in the Japanese city of Osaka will soon be using RFID technology to monitor the movements of their pupils. (The acronym stands for radio frequency identification.) The tags, which will be read by readers installed at various key locations throughout a school, will be placed on the children's schoolbags, name tags, or clothing. (CNET 12 Jul 2004) http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/systems/0,39001153,39186467,00.htm [See story below for similar technology to keep track of convicted rapists]
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Continuing Requests For Assistance Making Donations Access To The Collection Information About Mirror Sites Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet? Weekly eBook update: Updates/corrections in separate section 1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 69 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright - Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage - Information about mailing lists *** Requests For Assistance _I_ am still interested in a DVD that has an actual total of 10,000 eBooks. . .or more. . .mostly for PR purposes-if someone would be willing to make one. *** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers. We have regular needs for intellectual property legal advice (both US and international) and other areas. Please email Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby
, if you can help. This is much more important than many of us realize! *** Progress Report In the first 6.25 months of this year, we produced 2318 new eBooks. It took us from July 1971 to July 2000 to produce our first 2,318 eBooks! That's 27 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 Years! 70 49 71 371 355 203 103 2318 4164 2441 1240 ==== 10163 13,225 8,628
New eBooks This Week New eBooks Last Week New eBooks This Month [July] Average Average Average Average New New New New
Per Per Per Per
eBooks eBooks eBooks eBooks
Month Month Month Month
in in in in
in in in in
2004 2003 2002 2001
2004 2003 2002 2001
New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 42.25 Months! Total Project Gutenberg eBooks eBooks This Week Last Year
==== 4,597 364
New eBooks In Last 12 Months eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia [Sorry, we rereleased data on one twice, so I listed 364 last week, my apologies.]
We're still keeping up with Moore's Law! Moore's Law 12 month percentage =
91%
Moore's Law 18 month percentage =
96%
[100% of Moore's Law = doubling every 18 months] *** Since completing its first eBook (#3320) on Mar 13th, 2001, the Distributed Proofreaders team has now produced it's 4,766th eBook. Projects Jan 2004 Feb 2004 Mar 2004 Apr 2004 May 2004 Jun 2004 Jul 2004
completed since the beginning of the year: - 267 - 421 - 365 - 276 - 235 - 232 97 (as of Jul 14)
Two years ago they completed their 318th eBook (#5259). One year ago they completed their 1,454th eBook (#8138). This week they are well past their 4,760th eBook!!!!!!! Check out our website at gutenberg.net, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog. eBooks are posted throughout the week.
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Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs: http://gutenberg.net/subs.shtml *** FLASHBACK!!! 2318 New eBooks So Far in 2004 It took us ~29 years for the first 2318 ! That's the 6.25 MONTHS of 2004 as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!! Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2318
Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct
2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
His The The The The
Last Bow, by Arthur Conan Doyle[A.C.Doyle #23][lstbwxxx.xxx] Adv. of The Devil's Foot, A. Conan Doyle [#22][dvlftxxx.xxx] Disappearance Of Lady Frances Carfax [ACD #21][lcrfxxxx.xxx] Adv. Of The Dying Detective, A Conan Doyle #20[dydetxxx.xxx] Adv. Of The Bruce-Partington Plans [Doyle #19][bplanxxx.xxx]
2350 2349 2348 2347 2346
Oct Oct Oct Sep . . Sep
2000 The Adv. Of The Red Circle A. Conan Doyle [#18][rcrclxxx.xxx] 2345 2000 The Adv. Of The Cardboard Box, by Conan Doyle #17[crdbdxxx.xxx] 2344 2000 The Adv. Of Wisteria Lodge, A. Conan Doyle [#16][wstraxxx.xxx] 2343 2000 Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre 8, by Goethe[Goethe 20][?wml8xxx.xxx] 2342 . 2000 Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre 1, by Goethe[Goethe 13][?wml1xxx.xxx] 2335 [Language: German] Sep 2000 The Works of Rudyard Kipling/One Volume Edition/12[1vkipxxx.xxx] 2334 This contains a HUGE number of titles, so just listing the volume names: Departmental Ditties and Other Verses Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories Under the Deodars Plain Tales from the Hills The Light That Failed The Story of the Gadsbys from Mine Own People Sep 2000 Critical and Historical Essays, by Macaulay V2[#8][2cahexxx.xxx] 2333 Sep 2000 Critical and Historical Essays, by Macaulay V1[#7][1cahexxx.xxx] 2332 Sep 2000 History of Phoenicia, by George Rawlinson [hphncxxx.xxx] 2331 Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep
2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
Religions of Ancient China, by Herbert A. Giles #4[rlchnxxx.xxx] Autobio. of a Pocket-Handkerchief by J F Cooper #6[aoaphxxx.xxx] The Lake Gun, by James Fenimore Cooper [Cooper #5][lkgunxxx.xxx] Some Short Stories, by Henry James[Henry James 22][ssshjxxx.xxx] His Own People, by Booth Tarkington [Booth T. #9] [ownplxxx.xxx]
2330 2329 2328 2327 2326
Sep Sep Sep Sep
2000 2000 2000 2000
The Iceberg Express, by David Cory [icbxpxxx.xxx] A House to Let, by Dickens, et.al. [Dickens #53][hsletxxx.xxx] Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee[releexxx.xxx] Hans Huckebein, by Wilhelm Busch [Three Stories] [?hckbxxx.xxx]
2325 2324 2323 2322
Sep 2000 Goetz von Berlichingen, by Johann W. Goethe [#12][?getzxxx.xxx] [Language: German] Sep 2000 Novelle, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe [Goethe #11][?nvllxxx.xxx] [Language: German] Sep 2000 West-oestlicher Divan, by Johann W. Goethe[JWG#10][?wdvnxxx.xxx] [Language: German] Sep 2000 Droll Stories [V. 2], by Honore de Balzac[HdB #92][2drllxxx.xxx] Sep 2000 The Story of My Heart, by Richard Jefferies [tsomhxxx.xxx] Sep 2000 The Choir Invisible, by James Lane Allen [chrnvxxx.xxx]
2321
Sep 2000 The Flag-Raising, by Kate Douglas Wiggin[Wiggin14][flgrsxxx.xxx] Sep 2000 Geschichte des Agathon, Teil 2, by C M Wieland #3 [?2agtxxx.xxx] [Language: German] Sep 2000 Geschichte des Agathon, Teil 1, by C M Wieland #2 [?1agtxxx.xxx] [Language: German] Sep 2000 Hermann und Dorothea, by Goethe [German 8-bits] #9[?hermxxx.xxx] [Language: German] Sep 2000 Travels through France & Italy, by Tobias Smollett[ttfaixxx.xxx]
2315 2314
Sep 2000 In The Carquinez Woods, by Bret Harte
2320 2319 2318 2317 2316
2313 2312 2311
[Harte #13][crqnzxxx.xxx] 2310
Sep 2000 The Freelands, by John Galsworthy [Galsworthy #2][frndsxxx.xxx] 2309 Sep 2000 Bunyan Characters (3rd Series), by Alex. Whyte #3 [3bnchxxx.xxx] 2308 Sep 2000 The Depot Master, by Joseph C. Lincoln [dpmstxxx.xxx] 2307 Aug 2000 Uncle Remus/Songs/Sayings, by Joel Chandler Harris[remusxxx.xxx] [Title: Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings] Aug 2000 A Set of Six, by Joseph Conrad [Joseph Conrad #24][seto6xxx.xxx] Aug 2000 Legends and Lyrics, Pt 2, by Adelaide Ann Proctor [lgly2xxx.xxx] Aug 2000 Legends and Lyrics, Pt 1, by Adelaide Ann Proctor [lgly1xxx.xxx] Aug 2000 Poor Folk, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky [Dostoyevsky #3][prflkxxx.xxx] Aug 2000 A Simpleton, by Charles Reade [smptnxxx.xxx]
2306
Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug
2300 2299 2298 2297 2296
2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
The Descent of Man, by Charles Darwin [Darwin #7][dscmnxxx.xxx] Pandora, by Henry James [Henry James #21][pndraxxx.xxx] Great Astronomers, by R. S. Ball [grastxxx.xxx] Snow-Bound at Eagle's, by Bret Harte [Harte #12][sbdaexxx.xxx] Pillars of Society, by Henrik Ibsen[Henrik Ibsen2][pllrsxxx.xxx]
*** Today Is Day #195 of 2004 This Completes Week #27 and Month #6.25 176 Days/25 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 6775 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 86 79 47 24
Weekly Weekly Weekly Weekly
Average Average Average Average
in in in in
2004 2003 2002 2001
41
Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list [Used to be well over 100]
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2305 2304 2303 2302 2301
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Statistical Review In the 27 weeks of this year, we have produced 2319 new eBooks. It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our FIRST 2319 eBooks!!! That's 27 WEEKS as Compared to ~29 YEARS!!! With 13,226 eBooks online as of July 14, 2004 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.76 from each book, for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000 [One Trillion Dollars] in books. 100,000,000 readers is only about 1.5% of the world's population! This "cost" is down from about $1.16 when we had 8628 eBooks A Year Ago Can you imagine ~13,225 books each costing ~$.40 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine ~13,225 books each costing 1/3 less a year later??? At 13,225 eBooks in 33 Years and 00.25 Months We Averaged 400 Per Year [We do nearly that much a month these days!] 33.4 Per Month 1.10 Per Day At 2318 eBooks Done In The 195 Days Of 2004 We Averaged 12 Per Day 87 Per Week 370 Per Month 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 7th was the first Wednesday of 2004, and thus ended PG's production year of 2003 and began the production year of 2004 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. ***Headline News*** [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] >From NewsScan: AMERICANS FLOCK TO GRAPHIC WAR IMAGES ONLINE About one in four American Internet users sought out graphic war images that were deemed too gruesome to display in conventional media such as newspapers and television, according to new research by the Pew Internet Project. The results were drawn from a telephone survey conducted between May 14 and June 17 -- a period that encompassed such disturbing events as the murder and dismemberment of American contract workers in Fallujah, the exposure of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, and the capture and beheading of U.S. civilian Nicholas Berg. Survey respondents reported mixed feelings after viewing the images -- 51% said they felt they'd made a good decision to access the images, but a third said they wished they hadn't seen them. "Millions of Internet users want to be able to view the graphic war images
and they see the Internet as an alternative source of news and information from traditional media. But many who do venture outside the traditional and familiar standards of the mainstream news organizations to look at the images online end up feeling very uncomfortable," says report co-author Deborah Fallows. Women in particular seemed more troubled over the entire issue of graphic online images, while younger adult Internet users tended to approve their availability. (Pew Internet Project News Release 8 Jul 2004) http://www.pewinternet.org [More On China's Industrial Revolution] CHINA BACKS DOWN ON CHIP DISPUTE China has agreed to end a tax break that the U.S. charged unfairly favored computer chips produced or designed in China. The settlement of high-profile dispute, which played out under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, could pave the way for better relations between the U.S. and China and may encourage China to refrain from using similar preferences to favor other industries. "The line had to be drawn here," says Frank Vargo, VP for international economic affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers. "If China had been allowed to continue this patently unfair treatment of imported semiconductors, it could well have sought to expand this practice to a growing range of manufacturing industries. This isn't just about semiconductors -- even as important as that industry is." Currently, China imports 80% of its chips because its domestic semiconductor industry is still small, although rapidly expanding. The repeal of the tax break will be especially helpful to smaller U.S. semiconductor companies, which compete against Chinese chipmakers to provide chips for consumer electronics and other lower-tech industries, says industry analyst David Wu. "It's not really going to help Intel, because they make parts that China would have to buy anyway." (Los Angeles Times 9 Jul 2004) http://www.latimes.com/technology/ la-fi-chips9jul09,1,6795079.story?coll=la-headlines-technology [Won't this just encourage the Chinese to make more of their own chips and import even less? Thus it would be self-defeating in terms of supporting "smaller U.S. semiconductor companies."] [More on U.S. governmental policies on oriental computer products] IN HOT PURSUIT OF FASTER COMPUTERS To help the U.S. regain an edge in high-performance supercomputing, the House of Representatives has passed two bills to encourage the development high-speed supercomputers for use by automakers, drug makers and other major industries. Noting Japan's introduction of the world's fastest computer in 2002, House Science Committee Chairman Boehlert (R, NY) says: "What the Japanese have done is send a strong signal as a reminder to all of us that this is a very competitive marketplace." (Reuters/Los Angeles Times 8 Jul 2004) http://tinyurl.com/2ucqp [More below on this story from Edupage, though the other story does not mention the motivation as being to out-compete Asian computer makers.]
HOOKED FOR RENTING OUT PRIVATE CUSTOMER DATA The Hooked on Phonics company, which markets learning systems, has settled a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission that the company rented out customer data to outside marketers even though it had promised on its Web site that it would keep the information private. The FTC's J. Howard Beales III says: "It's simple: If you collect information and promise not to share, you can't share unless the consumer agrees." But Chris Jay Hoofnagle of the Electronic Privacy Information Center criticizes the FTC on the grounds that the Agency is in effect pushing companies to have the fewest restrictions possible without alienating potential customers: "The obvious encouragement here is to not make promises. We think that approach is somewhat inflexible." (Washington Post 7 Jul 2004) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35434-2004Jul7.html [And yet more] THE GROWING AUTO INDUSTRY MARKET FOR MICROCHIPS TOKYO Gartner Research is predicting that, as electronics become the main driver of car innovation, chip makers will be a major beneficiary. Gartner executive Mike Williams says: "Because penetration of electronics in cars is still quite low, we expect to see growth [in chip demand] coming from further penetration," and Drue Freeman of Philips Semiconductors adds: "Electronics is where car makers can really start to do innovation and they can differentiate their cars from competition. Also, the use of more electronics and semiconductors will actually help reduce the costs that car makers have to spend in building cars." (Reuters/USA Today 8 Jul 2004) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2004-07-08-auto-chips_x.htm TENNESSEE GPS SYSTEM WILL TRACK PAROLED OFFENDERS [RAPISTS] [See above story for similar RFID tags to track our children] Tennessee has budgeted $2.5 million for a pilot project that will test a global positioning system (GPS) for keeping track of paroled rapists. The system would let law enforcement build maps with "zones of exclusion" for the offenders (such as playgrounds, schools, day-care centers or the homes of victims), and would allow probation officers to determine whether the felons they are supervising are going to work during the day, going home at night, and staying away from restricted areas. (The Tennessean 12 Jul 2004) http://www.tennessean.com/government/archives/04/07/54224165.shtml?Element_I D=54224165 [I've heard these can track nearly any modern cell phone, too.] "WHISTLEBLOWER" LAWSSUIT FILED AGAINST DIEBOLD Opponents of electronic voting are suing Diebold Inc. under a California whistleblower law, accusing Diebold of defrauding the state by providing shoddy balloting equipment that exposed California elections to vandals and to software bugs. The individuals who filed the suit are Jim March, a programmer, and Bev Harris, an activist. Under the whistleblower statute, the two could collect up to 30% of any reimbursement. March says: "This is about money now -- a case of the capitalist system at work. The laws on voting products and processes are unfortunately unclear. But the law on defrauding the government is really, really clear. Going after the money trail is cleaner than going after proper procedures." But some critics of Diebold are equally critical of March and Harris. One of them says, "I would like to see people support a real solution rather than just try to cash in. There are a lot of people who could be a tremendous asset, but they're grandstanding and reveling in the expose." (San Jose Mercury News 12 Jul 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9131675.htm [A Novel New Chinese Novel] CHINESE TEXT-MESSAGING NOVEL Chinese author Qian Fuchang's new 4,000-word novel is meant to be read in 70-word chapters transmitted by cellphone text messages. Qian says "the plot develops just like that of an ordinary novel," and his employer, the Guangdong Literature Academy, is planning an auction to sell the novel to short-message services. "The novel, which contains all literary elements, will be a real literary work." (AP/Los Angeles Times 12 Jul 2004 http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology12jul12,1,215303.story?co ll=sns-ap-toptechnology [And Don't Forget The Technology Revolution In India] [Globalizations Rules Once Again!] OUTSOURCING OUTRAGE GOING OUT OF STYLE The clamor against the outsourcing to India of computer software and back-office services appears to have faded substantially. Infosys chief executive Nandan M. Nilekani says: "The backlash against outsourcing has abated, customer spending is on the rise, and we have redesigned ourselves internally to take advantage of the vast opportunities." According to Sunil Mehta of India's leading software industry trade body: "The debate about outsourcing appears to have moved from an emotional, anecdotal, job-losses plane to a more sober, balanced one about the advantages of globalization of services." Ironically, the anti-outsourcing clamor in the U.S. has actually turned out to be good for the outsourcing business. Partha Iyengar, research director for Gartner explains: "The backlash proved a gold mine of free publicity for Indian outsourcing companies," and the U.S.-based CEO of iGate Global Solutions (operates in Bangalore, India) says: "The backlash issue made outsourcing so mainstream that even my barber was speaking knowledgeably about outsourcing." (New York Times 14 Jul 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/business/worldbusiness/14infosys.html You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan: NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making significant and sustained contributions to the effective management and appropriate use of information technology. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages (i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to: Text version: Send message to [email protected] Html version: Send mail to [email protected] NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html *** >From Edupage SUPERCOMPUTING BILLS CLEAR HOUSE The U.S. House of Representatives has passed two bills aimed at improving supercomputing facilities and programs in the United States.
The High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 would coordinate all federal supercomputing projects under the authority of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy and would require the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy's Office of Science to make supercomputing facilities available to researchers. Under the other bill, called the Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004, the secretary of energy would develop top-level supercomputing facilities, which would be accessible to researchers from industry, academe, and federal agencies. The bill authorizes $165 million for the project, but the funds would still need to be appropriated through other legislation. The Computing Research Association, a group that represents academic and commercial researchers, praised the House's approval of the bills but noted that federal funding for information technology projects has frequently fallen short of targets. Chronicle of Higher Education, 8 July 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/07/2004070802n.htm FEDERAL PROGRAM PUSHES SCIENCE EDUCATION [U.S. students fall from top echelon to bottom between 4th & 8th grade.] U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham this week announced the Scientists Teaching and Reaching Students program, which is intended to support and foster interest in math and science programs among the country's middle and high school students. According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, U.S. students, who are among the top-performing students in the world in math and science at the 4th-grade level, fall nearly to the bottom of the list by 12th grade. The new program will award scholarships for math and science teachers to study at the nation's labs, including Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories. In addition, those labs will host 2,000 5th- and 8th-grade students for at least one day a year. For a number of years, U.S. colleges and universities have seen steadily declining numbers of students in science programs, and the effect of the new program on this trend is not clear. Countries such as India, China, and Russia currently graduate significantly more science and engineering students than the United States. San Jose Mercury News, 8 July 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9112372.htm HOUSE STANDS BY PATRIOT ACT, BARELY Efforts to overturn portions of the USA PATRIOT Act were rejected by the U.S. House of Representatives this week, as lawmakers responded to a veto threat from the White House. One portion of the PATRIOT Act lowers the bar for federal officials to obtain records from libraries and book stores about the habits of their patrons. Civil libertarians and many in Congress have taken issue with those powers of the law, calling them unconstitutional, and Reps. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) and C.L. Butch Otter (R-Idaho) had led the push to repeal those powers. Even without the PATRIOT Act, said critics, investigators can obtain similar records from libraries or book stores if probable cause is shown. The PATRIOT Act allows the government to force disclosure of records without showing such cause. The effort to block that portion of the law appeared to have the majority support needed to pass, but 10 Republican lawmakers were persuaded to change their minds, resulting in a vote of 210-210. Wired News, 8 July 2004
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64144,00.html ACADEMICS GET BEHIND REVISIONS TO DMCA Five academic library organizations, as well as the Association of American Universities, have joined the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition, which is working to gain passage of legislation that would revise portions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act would allow exemptions for fair use from the provision of the DMCA that bans circumvention of antipiracy measures, and it would broaden a current exemption from the anticircumvention provision for certain types of research. Joining the coalition to revise the law are the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association. The bill may come up for a vote during the current Congressional session, though it is opposed by the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which claims jurisdiction over the bill. Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 July 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i44/44a03102.htm You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html or send e-mail to: [email protected] To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to [email protected] and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** More Headline News Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media Report on Intelligence Community:
"Put It In With The Garbage"
Those of you who follow the Washington Press Corps to any degree already know the phrase, "Put it in with the garbage" refers to releasing news bad to the current administration on a Friday. Friday news programs are the least watched of the weekday evening news reports and it is always hoped that the news will "blow over" by Monday, having been replaced by something else. The real dread is that the next few days will be "slow news days" that do not provide any distractions from the bad news. Even counting all the weekend panel news discussions, the Friday news cycle has been determined to have the least public effect, since so many people are travelling, partying, going to movies, etc., during the Friday editions of the evening news. *** FAA Official Says Air Defenses Are Up to Standards Even After Incident Over Capital Showed Potential
For Realistic Catastrophic Interagency Failures Thursday, July 9, 2004 A month after the fact, the VP of the Federal Aviation Administration finally addressed the situation on June 8 that resulted in scrambling of F-15's to possibly shoot down Governor Fletcher of Kentucky. Even though the F-15's were already patrolling, due to the upcoming funeral of President Reagan, they never managed to get in position, even with a several minute head start, and thus the governor needed no protection from them, should the scramble not have been called off. Various failures in interagency sharing of intelligence and tools were cited as the cause, in addition to common courtesy usually given to heads of our state governments flying to Washington, D.C. As a result, the Capitol was evacuated for some time. There have been repeated examples of planes flying over Washington either undetected or without the possibility of successful aircraft scrambling to intercept them, this is just the most recent example. During the Clinton presidency a private plane actually crashed on the White House grounds killing the pilot and doing some damage to the White House, with wreckage ending up very close to the presidential sleeping quarters, which usually would have been occupied at 2:00 in the morning. The only casualties appear to have been a 160 year old magnolia and some White House window glass, and several yards of turf, as well as the pilot and the aircraft. The plane was reported to have been stolen from a small airfield north of Baltimore. Apparently only 14 seconds elapsed between spotting the plane and the time of the crash. White House security armed with shoulder-mounted Stinger missiles were never reported to have been in position to fire in this, or any other of the examples I could find. This wasn't all that easy to find, as a Google Search of "White House" and "Plane Crash" didn't turn up anything in the first several 10 item searches. STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK Our local radio reports that the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 which was scheduled to play at our major chain multiplex [GKC] is not available. No reason was given. *** About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter: Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various different relays will get it to you at different times; you can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
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