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From hart at pglaf.org Wed Oct 19 09:54:23 2005 From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart) Date: Wed Oct 19 09:54:28 2005 Subject: [gweekly] PT1a Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter Message-ID: Weekly_October_19.txt *The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, October 19, 2005 PT1* ******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******** PT1A Editor's comments appear in [brackets]. Newsletter editors needed! Please email [email protected] or [email protected] Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email [email protected] * HOT REQUESTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS We Have Added Another Language Kamilaroi, the 47th language at http://www.gutenberg.org [Kamilaroi is a language of New South Wales, Australia.] For those interested in more languages, there are 104 at http://www.gutenberg.cc STATISTICAL CHANGES Due to various changes in our statistical reporting and coverage, the accuracy of the weekly count of the number of eBooks will not be as redundantly checked by a human count, and we will rely more on the automated system. ***If you notice any inconsistencies, please send email to: hart AT pglaf DOT org * WANTED! >>>
!!!People to help us collect ALL public domain eBooks!!!
<<<
* Wanted:
People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc.
* 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 5 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 47 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from Edupage, etc. *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones* ***500+ eBooks Averaged Per Year Since July 4, 1971*** 17,353 eBooks As Of Today!!! [Includes Australian eBooks] We Are ~87% of the Way to 20,000!!! 14,239 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 That's 250+ eBooks per Month for ~56 Months We Have Produced 2397 eBooks in 2005!!! 2,647 to go to 20,000!!! 7,559 from Distributed Proofreaders Since October, 2000 [Details in PT1B] We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging ~250 books Per Month This Year [This change is due to the opening of Project Gutenberg sites other than the original one at www.gutenberg.org] This Site Is Averaging ~58 eBooks Per Week This Year
52 This Week It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~2.00 years from Oct. 2003 to Oct. 2005 from 10,000 to 17,350 * ***Introduction [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: [email protected] and [email protected] if you would like to volunteer.] This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter Newsletter editors needed! Please email [email protected] or [email protected] Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email [email protected] *Headline News from Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] RESULTS OF RESNET SURVEY RELEASED The ResNet Organization has released results from a survey it conducted earlier this year of those responsible for residential networks at 224 colleges and universities. The leading concern among network administrators is security, with P2P activity coming in at a distant second. Administrators also put security at the top of the list of issues they expect to take significant amounts of time and resources over the next couple of years, with wireless networking coming in second and P2P issues falling to seventh. David G. Futey, associate director of academic computing at Stanford University and a member of the ResNet Organization, said the survey provides new insight into "determining what a res-net service area is at institutions, the level of services it provides, and the technology supported through it." Futey commented that he was surprised to see that of the respondents to the survey, nearly half had not installed wireless networks. The survey also indicated that more than half of responding institutions charge technology fees but that at about half of those that charge a fee, no part of the fee supports residential networks. Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 October 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/10/2005101402t.htm
ANONYMOUS DONOR BUYS MUSIC FOR STANFORD Money from an anonymous donor will pay for online music service for students at Stanford University. University officials said the donation did not require any particular vendor, and the institution has chosen the recently introduced service from Yahoo. Stanford has said it would not pay for music services and would not use student fees to subsidize such services because it "is not part of our research or teaching mission," according to Susan Weinstein, director of business development at the university. After the first year of service, which Stanford considers a trial program, prices for the Yahoo service will be $1.75 per month for basic service, which allows unlimited streaming or downloads to a computer, or $4.75 per month for a premium service that allows users to transfer songs to other devices, including portable music players. ZDNet, 13 October 2005 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5894967.html PANEL WARNS U.S. NOT KEEPING PACE IN SCIENCE A new report says that the United States stands to lose its leading position in science and research unless efforts are made to strengthen support for educational and other scientific programs. The panel that wrote the report was convened by the National Academies and included representatives from corporations and higher education, as well as Nobel laureates and former presidential appointees. The panel pointed to the narrowing scientific gap between the United States and countries such as China and India; recent results showing declining performance among U.S. students in science and math compared with students around the world; and economic factors that work against U.S. scientific interests. Among the report's recommendations are funding scholarships to support 10,000 students annually to pursue careers in teaching math and science; allocating money for 30,000 students per year to study science, math, and engineering; and relaxing visa regulations to allow international students to find employment in the United States after they graduate. CNET, 13 October 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-11395_3-5894854.html REPORT ADDRESSES SUSTAINABILITY OF DATABASES A new report from a National Science Board task force calls on the federal government to implement a clear and focused strategy to ensure that growing collections of information in databases remain accessible and easy to use in the coming years. The report argues that the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has financed many technological developments in recent years, has not crafted policies and strategies that consider and address the range of technologies for storing data. The report praises the improvements that have been made to systems that collect various types of material in digital form and make those materials widely available online, but it says the need is "urgent" for a strategy to guarantee the viability of those materials. The concern, according to the report, is that as technology platforms continue to evolve, some digital content could be left in the lurch, unable to be accessed by newer systems. The report makes a number of recommendations for the NSF, including coordinating efforts between data storage and users of those data, promoting effective training, and supporting efforts to educate "a sufficient number of high-quality data scientists" to manage such systems. Inside Higher Ed, 13 October 2005 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/13/digital
EC PROPOSES INCREASED SPENDING ON RESEARCH The European Commission has called for increased research spending at universities and other research organizations, saying that Europe is lagging behind the United States and Japan in such spending. According to the proposal, spending on research should climb to 3 percent of GDP by 2010, up from 1.9 percent in 2003. The report noted that U.S. spending was 2.59 percent and that Japan spent 3.15 percent of GDP. The report also cautions that countries such as China could surpass Europe in research spending as a percentage of GDP, saying that increases in research spending result in direct increases in GDP. Under the proposal, which must be approved by European governments, more money would be devoted to academic research projects and to partnerships between industry and universities. Guenter Verheugen, EU industry commissioner, said, "Every cent which goes into innovation and research is a cent invested in jobs, growth and hence, our future." San Jose Mercury News, 12 October 2005 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12883018.htm You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, 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 or To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 *** New from other sources: First Million Dollar Download Of Music "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani is the first million dollar download from such legal sites as iTunes, MSN, Napster, MusicMatch, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, Wal-Mart, etc. Sales are still high at 15,000 per week. The million sales mark should soon fall for the ringtone version, too. The CD has already been certified as triple platinum. The song is from her debut album "Love. Angel Music. Baby." her first separate album from the supergroup "No Doubt."
This is
Apple's iTunes has already recorded over half a billion downloads! Source:
www.digitalmusicnews.com
etc.
[It is now accepted that people will actually download a million copies of items offered via the Internet.] *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
[As requested adding sources, etc., when possible.] Holland Banning The Burka? Rita Verdonk, Holland's hardline Integration Minister, known as the Iron Lady for her hardline stances, simply declined to meet with Muslim officials who who shake hands with here as a result of their sexist views. She current leads a Dutch movement to ban the burka in some situations. In addition there is a current lawsuit being filed by a woman who was refused a job at the prestigious Muslim University in Amsterdam because she refused to wear a headscarf. A court case last year went against Muslim women who had not been allowed to wear burkas during a social work and childcare course. The court ruled that the children should not be prevented from seeing who was taking care of them. Holland would become the first country in Europe to ban the burka in specific situations in public, but several major Belgian cities including Ghent, Antwerp and others banned the public wearing of burkas and have starting issuing hefty municipal fines. Some Italian cities, such as Como, have have passed laws banning the hiding of the face in public, and are imposing fines for wearing Burkas as a result. In addition, France and some of Germany have banned the hijab headscarf in schools and public buildings, this following similar measures in Tunisia and also even reported in Turkey, a majority Muslim nation. Sources: BBC, The Times and The Sunday Times www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1823334,00.html BBC News via WILL AM radio, ~9AM, 10/17 [For centuries Holland has been the greatest example of religious tolerance in the world, so this marks a major historical change.] *DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK The whole Valerie Plame finger pointing and no comments exercise.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK 10-20% of anorexics will die from it. "The best estimates are around 10 percent of the women with anorexia
nervosa will ultimately die as a result of their illness." Doug Bunnell [Past. Pres. National Eating Disorders Association] [Source:
The Clarion-Ledger]
[I seem to recall an ABC TV news story saying it was 18%] *STRANGE QUOTES OF THE WEEK "The new copyright laws have removed a thousands times as many books from free circulation as all the book burnings in history." Anonymous Source * "What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what's good for General Motors is good for the country." Statement made in 1952 by Charles Erwin Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower, to the Senate Armed Forces subcommittee. * "The chief business of the American people is business," President Calvin Coolidge
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK Wholesale prices rose 1.9% last month, the highest rate since the first month of the 1990s. [The oddest thing about it all is that most of the news services are telling us it doesn't mean anything.] THE WASHINGTON POST, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 * Only 8 of ~140 top CEO's are women. NBC News, 10/17 * We are out of names for tropical storms and hurricanes. With 21 named storms already this year, the next one will require us to start with the Greek alphabet: alpha, beta, gamma, etc., which has never happened before. [Not all letters are used, so X, Y, and Z, which would be after the currently force 5 hurricane Wilma, would not be used] Various sources.
* Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries. "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. * POEM OF THE WEEK She Loves Me Not Summer loves me not for I am the Fall girl and even though we're sisters I make her leaves tremble and although she suffers from lost love I am the one who cries her tears. Summer loves me not. She cherishes me. Copyright 2005 by Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart Please send comments to: simona_s75 AT yahoo.com & hart AT pobox.com *** *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. To subscribe to any (or to unsubscribe or adjust your subscription preferences), visit the Project Gutenberg mailing list server: http://lists.pglaf.org If you are having trouble with your subscription, please email the list's human administrators at: [email protected]
!!!People to help us collect ALL public domain eBooks!!!
<<<
* Wanted:
People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc.
* 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 5 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 47 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from Edupage, etc. *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones* ***500+ eBooks Averaged Per Year Since July 4, 1971*** 17,353 eBooks As Of Today!!! [Includes Australian eBooks] We Are ~87% of the Way to 20,000!!! 14,239 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 That's 250+ eBooks per Month for ~56 Months We Have Produced 2397 eBooks in 2005!!! 2,647 to go to 20,000!!! 7,559 from Distributed Proofreaders Since October, 2000 [Details in PT1B] We Averaged ~339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging ~250 books Per Month This Year [This change is due to the opening of Project Gutenberg sites other than the original one at www.gutenberg.org] This Site Is Averaging ~58 eBooks Per Week This Year
52 This Week It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100 It took ~2.00 years from Oct. 2003 to Oct. 2005 from 10,000 to 17,350 * ***Introduction [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: [email protected] and [email protected] if you would like to volunteer.] This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter Newsletter editors needed! Please email [email protected] or [email protected] Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email [email protected] *Headline News from Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] RESULTS OF RESNET SURVEY RELEASED The ResNet Organization has released results from a survey it conducted earlier this year of those responsible for residential networks at 224 colleges and universities. The leading concern among network administrators is security, with P2P activity coming in at a distant second. Administrators also put security at the top of the list of issues they expect to take significant amounts of time and resources over the next couple of years, with wireless networking coming in second and P2P issues falling to seventh. David G. Futey, associate director of academic computing at Stanford University and a member of the ResNet Organization, said the survey provides new insight into "determining what a res-net service area is at institutions, the level of services it provides, and the technology supported through it." Futey commented that he was surprised to see that of the respondents to the survey, nearly half had not installed wireless networks. The survey also indicated that more than half of responding institutions charge technology fees but that at about half of those that charge a fee, no part of the fee supports residential networks. Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 October 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/10/2005101402t.htm
ANONYMOUS DONOR BUYS MUSIC FOR STANFORD Money from an anonymous donor will pay for online music service for students at Stanford University. University officials said the donation did not require any particular vendor, and the institution has chosen the recently introduced service from Yahoo. Stanford has said it would not pay for music services and would not use student fees to subsidize such services because it "is not part of our research or teaching mission," according to Susan Weinstein, director of business development at the university. After the first year of service, which Stanford considers a trial program, prices for the Yahoo service will be $1.75 per month for basic service, which allows unlimited streaming or downloads to a computer, or $4.75 per month for a premium service that allows users to transfer songs to other devices, including portable music players. ZDNet, 13 October 2005 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5894967.html PANEL WARNS U.S. NOT KEEPING PACE IN SCIENCE A new report says that the United States stands to lose its leading position in science and research unless efforts are made to strengthen support for educational and other scientific programs. The panel that wrote the report was convened by the National Academies and included representatives from corporations and higher education, as well as Nobel laureates and former presidential appointees. The panel pointed to the narrowing scientific gap between the United States and countries such as China and India; recent results showing declining performance among U.S. students in science and math compared with students around the world; and economic factors that work against U.S. scientific interests. Among the report's recommendations are funding scholarships to support 10,000 students annually to pursue careers in teaching math and science; allocating money for 30,000 students per year to study science, math, and engineering; and relaxing visa regulations to allow international students to find employment in the United States after they graduate. CNET, 13 October 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-11395_3-5894854.html REPORT ADDRESSES SUSTAINABILITY OF DATABASES A new report from a National Science Board task force calls on the federal government to implement a clear and focused strategy to ensure that growing collections of information in databases remain accessible and easy to use in the coming years. The report argues that the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has financed many technological developments in recent years, has not crafted policies and strategies that consider and address the range of technologies for storing data. The report praises the improvements that have been made to systems that collect various types of material in digital form and make those materials widely available online, but it says the need is "urgent" for a strategy to guarantee the viability of those materials. The concern, according to the report, is that as technology platforms continue to evolve, some digital content could be left in the lurch, unable to be accessed by newer systems. The report makes a number of recommendations for the NSF, including coordinating efforts between data storage and users of those data, promoting effective training, and supporting efforts to educate "a sufficient number of high-quality data scientists" to manage such systems. Inside Higher Ed, 13 October 2005 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/13/digital
EC PROPOSES INCREASED SPENDING ON RESEARCH The European Commission has called for increased research spending at universities and other research organizations, saying that Europe is lagging behind the United States and Japan in such spending. According to the proposal, spending on research should climb to 3 percent of GDP by 2010, up from 1.9 percent in 2003. The report noted that U.S. spending was 2.59 percent and that Japan spent 3.15 percent of GDP. The report also cautions that countries such as China could surpass Europe in research spending as a percentage of GDP, saying that increases in research spending result in direct increases in GDP. Under the proposal, which must be approved by European governments, more money would be devoted to academic research projects and to partnerships between industry and universities. Guenter Verheugen, EU industry commissioner, said, "Every cent which goes into innovation and research is a cent invested in jobs, growth and hence, our future." San Jose Mercury News, 12 October 2005 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12883018.htm You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, 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 or To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 *** New from other sources: First Million Dollar Download Of Music "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani is the first million dollar download from such legal sites as iTunes, MSN, Napster, MusicMatch, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, Wal-Mart, etc. Sales are still high at 15,000 per week. The million sales mark should soon fall for the ringtone version, too. The CD has already been certified as triple platinum. The song is from her debut album "Love. Angel Music. Baby." her first separate album from the supergroup "No Doubt."
This is
Apple's iTunes has already recorded over half a billion downloads! Source:
www.digitalmusicnews.com
etc.
[It is now accepted that people will actually download a million copies of items offered via the Internet.] *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
[As requested adding sources, etc., when possible.] Holland Banning The Burka? Rita Verdonk, Holland's hardline Integration Minister, known as the Iron Lady for her hardline stances, simply declined to meet with Muslim officials who who shake hands with here as a result of their sexist views. She current leads a Dutch movement to ban the burka in some situations. In addition there is a current lawsuit being filed by a woman who was refused a job at the prestigious Muslim University in Amsterdam because she refused to wear a headscarf. A court case last year went against Muslim women who had not been allowed to wear burkas during a social work and childcare course. The court ruled that the children should not be prevented from seeing who was taking care of them. Holland would become the first country in Europe to ban the burka in specific situations in public, but several major Belgian cities including Ghent, Antwerp and others banned the public wearing of burkas and have starting issuing hefty municipal fines. Some Italian cities, such as Como, have have passed laws banning the hiding of the face in public, and are imposing fines for wearing Burkas as a result. In addition, France and some of Germany have banned the hijab headscarf in schools and public buildings, this following similar measures in Tunisia and also even reported in Turkey, a majority Muslim nation. Sources: BBC, The Times and The Sunday Times www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1823334,00.html BBC News via WILL AM radio, ~9AM, 10/17 [For centuries Holland has been the greatest example of religious tolerance in the world, so this marks a major historical change.] *DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK The whole Valerie Plame finger pointing and no comments exercise.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK 10-20% of anorexics will die from it. "The best estimates are around 10 percent of the women with anorexia
nervosa will ultimately die as a result of their illness." Doug Bunnell [Past. Pres. National Eating Disorders Association] [Source:
The Clarion-Ledger]
[I seem to recall an ABC TV news story saying it was 18%] *STRANGE QUOTES OF THE WEEK "The new copyright laws have removed a thousands times as many books from free circulation as all the book burnings in history." Anonymous Source * "What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what's good for General Motors is good for the country." Statement made in 1952 by Charles Erwin Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower, to the Senate Armed Forces subcommittee. * "The chief business of the American people is business," President Calvin Coolidge
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK Wholesale prices rose 1.9% last month, the highest rate since the first month of the 1990s. [The oddest thing about it all is that most of the news services are telling us it doesn't mean anything.] THE WASHINGTON POST, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 * Only 8 of ~140 top CEO's are women. NBC News, 10/17 * We are out of names for tropical storms and hurricanes. With 21 named storms already this year, the next one will require us to start with the Greek alphabet: alpha, beta, gamma, etc., which has never happened before. [Not all letters are used, so X, Y, and Z, which would be after the currently force 5 hurricane Wilma, would not be used] Various sources.
* Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries. "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. * POEM OF THE WEEK She Loves Me Not Summer loves me not for I am the Fall girl and even though we're sisters I make her leaves tremble and although she suffers from lost love I am the one who cries her tears. Summer loves me not. She cherishes me. Copyright 2005 by Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart Please send comments to: simona_s75 AT yahoo.com & hart AT pobox.com *** *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. To subscribe to any (or to unsubscribe or adjust your subscription preferences), visit the Project Gutenberg mailing list server: http://lists.pglaf.org If you are having trouble with your subscription, please email the list's human administrators at: [email protected]
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