Weekly_June_29.txt **The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 29, 2005 PT1** *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971****** Please note that this Newsletter is being prepared in advance so statistics for the last few days of our production week are estimated based on 50. 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 Please note that we are still in the process of correcting our statistical program data. Last week we subtracted a few that we thought had been in a duplicate count situation, but either that correction didn't stick or some new similar problem has occured. As always, the total count should be the consideration of some attention as to possibly being off by a few eBooks. Please note that PT2 of this Newsletter is currently in flux, as we shift from to an automated PT2 sender. The situation with Monthly Newsletters is in flux to an even greater degree. Our apologies as we make changes. * HOT REQUESTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE: Since starting production in October 2000, Distributed Proofreaders has contributed 7,000+ eBooks to Project Gutenberg!!! For more complete DP statistics, visit: http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php PROJECT GUTENBERG OF EUROPE TAKES OFF!!! "EUROPE'S FLAMING JUNE 2005" "PROJECT GUTENBERG EUROPE" STARTS REGULAR ACTIVITY http://pge.rastko.net [Project Gutenberg Europe] http://dp.rastko.net [Distributed Proofreaders Europe] Hopefully 100 eBooks this month, plus 150 articles, with examples in 80-120 different languages!!! After a year of preparation "Project Gutenberg Europe", organized by "Project Rastko Network" and its "Distributed Proofreaders Europe", starts regular activity this month, now having now its own server provided by leading South Eastern European provider "EUnet". First 20 PD e-texts are already posted, as below, and some 80 could follow by the end of the June. In coming days, special greetings, essays and translation will be posted on title page of PGE, as well as definitive tuning of the technical system will be over. PGE and its branches operate under European copyright legislation (life+50 and life+70). It already has volunteers all over the continent: European Community, Comonwealth of Independent States [ex-USSR] and other countries. "Distributed Proofreaders Europe"--as central European PD digitizing system, and only Unicode is capable of that kind in the world at the moment--releases a multilingual "European Proofing Package" of books this month, as special choices of general interest for whole continent. Also, regional and national campaigns in European countries are scheduled between May 31 and June 30, including first wave of physical events-- conferences and promotions--in Eastern Europe (Macedonia, Serbia, * 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 1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.] 41 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from Edupage, etc. *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 16,550 eBooks As Of Today!!! 13,498 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Produced 1604 eBooks in 2005 We Are ~65% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 We are ~31% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000 3,450 to go to 20,000!!! We have now averaged ~487 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971 We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging About 277 books Per Month This Year We Are Averaging About 64 eBooks Per Week This Year 42 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 ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000 * ***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.] [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 *** ***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements * Darwin!!! Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers. We could also use some help making some new editions of "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "Frankenstein." * Project Gutenberg of Canada needs your help! Please email: pgcanada@lists.pglaf.org To subscribe to the pgcanada list, please visit: http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/pgcanada * v0.2 version of PodReader is out, and it interfaces to PG. 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That's 25 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 Years! 42 New eBooks This Week 45 New eBooks Last Week 197 New eBooks This Month [Jun] ~281 Average Per Month in 2005 336 Average Per Month in 2004 355 Average Per Month in 2003 203 Average Per Month in 2002 103 Average Per Month in 2001 1604 New eBooks in 2005 4049 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 13498 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 53.80 Months! About 250 books per month 16,560 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 13,106 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 3,454 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 459 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia * PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE: Since starting production in October 2000, Distributed Proofreaders has contributed 7,033 eBooks to Project Gutenberg. For more complete DP statistics, visit: http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php * Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, 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. You can even get daily lists. Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs: http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/subscribe-howto or http://www.gutenberg.org/subs.shtml *** *Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report Please note the addition of the Internet Archive marked with <<< below. PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as: 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 Renaisscance 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 These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of their donors: some are one file per book; some have a file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the overcounting or duplication of numbers. If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~45,714 Unique eBooks If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~34,286 Unique eBooks *** Please also note that over 23,000 eBooks are listed via The Online Books Page, of which over 5,300 are from PG. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar listing which is now in limbo. If anyone knows what is 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 #175 of 2005 This Completes Week #25 and Month #05.80 [364 days this year] 189 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 3,440 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 64 Weekly Average in 2005 78 Weekly Average in 2004 79 Weekly Average in 2003 47 Weekly Average in 2002 24 Weekly Average in 2001 41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list [Used to be well over 100] *** Permanent Requests For Assistance: DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES Please visit the site: http://www.pgdp.net for more information about how you can help a lot by simply proofreading just a few pages per day, or more. 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Note that updated eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.) *** Statistical Review In the 25 weeks of this year, we have produced 1604 new eBooks. It took us from 7/71 to 1/99 to produce our FIRST 1604 eBooks!!! That's 25 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 YEARS!!! FLASHBACK! Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1407 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 have been reposted] Jan 1999 Cratylus, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #10][crtlsxxx.xxx] 1616 Jan 1999 Old English Libraries, by Ernest A. Savage [nglbsxxx.xxx] 1615 Jan 1999 The Golden Fleece, by Julian Hawthorne [gldflxxx.xxx] 1614 Jan 1999 Count Bunker, by J. Storer Clousten [cbnkrxxx.xxx] 1613 Jan 1999 Poems By a Little Girl, by Hilda Conkling [pbalgxxx.xxx] 1612 Jan 1999 Seventeen, by Booth Tarkington [B. Tarkington #7][svntnxxx.xxx] 1611 Jan 1999 The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, O.T. Part 2 [2drvbxxx.xxx] 1610 Jan 1999 The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, O.T. Part 1 [1drvbxxx.xxx] 1609 Jan 1999 Camille [La Dame aux Camilias], by A. Dumas, fils [cmllexxx.xxx] 1608 Jan 1999 A Journey in Other Worlds, by J. J. Astor [ajiowxxx.xxx] 1607 Jan 1999 Kenilworth, by Walter Scott [Walter Scott #6][knlwtxxx.xxx] 1606 Jan 1999 The Crock of Gold, by James Stephens [crkgdxxx.xxx] 1605 Jan 1999 The Ebb-Tide by R.L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne[#3][ebtidxxx.xxx] 1604 Jan 1999 The Blue Flower, by Henry van Dyke [van Dyke #5][blflrxxx.xxx] 1603 Jan 1999 Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed, by Edna Ferber [dwnhrxxx.xxx] 1602 Jan 1999 The Breaking Point, by Mary Roberts Rinehart [#6][brkptxxx.xxx] 1601 Jan 1999 Symposium, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #9][sympoxxx.xxx] 1600 Jan 1999 Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, et. al. [cndrlxxx.xxx] 1599 Jan 1999 Euthydemus, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #8][uthydxxx.xxx] 1598 Jan 1999 [Hans Christian] Andersen's Fairy Tales [HCA #1+][hcaftxxx.xxx] 1597 Contents: The Red Shoes The Naughty Boy The Dream of Little Tuk The Little Match Girl The Shadow The False Collar The Story of a Mother The Happy Family The Old House The Bell The Elderbush The Leap-Frog The Snow Queen The Fir Tree The Real Princess The Swineherd The Emperor's New Clothes Jan 1999 Smoke Bellew, by Jack London [Jack London #50][smkblxxx.xxx] 1596 Jan 1999 Whirligigs, by O. Henry [?whrlxxx.xxx] 1595 (Previous 10th edition available in:) [whrlgxxx.xxx] Jan 1999 Essays in Little, by Andrew Lang [Andrew Lang #11][eslttxxx.xxx] 1594 Jan 1999 How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers, by Wood [httbfxxx.zip] 1593 Jan 1999 Study of the King James Bible, Cleland Boyd McAfee[sokjvxxx.xxx] 1592 Jan 1999 Protagoras, by Plato, B. Jowett, Trans. [Plato #7][prtgsxxx.xxx] 1591 The Amazing Interlude, by Mary Roberts Rinehart 1590 [Illus.: Troy Kinney and Margaret West Kinney] Jan 1999 Tamburlaine the Great PT 2, by Christopher Marlowe[tmbn2xxx.xxx] 1589 * Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? With 16,560 eBooks online as of June 29, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.94 from each book. 1% of the world population is 64,507,911 x 16,560 x $.94 = ~$1 trillion] [Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.] With 16,560 eBooks online as of June 29, 2005 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.60 from each book, This "cost" is down from about $.76 when we had 13,106 eBooks a year ago. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! At 16,570 eBooks in 33 Years and 11.80 Months We Averaged ~487 Per Year 40.6 Per Month 1.33 Per Day At 1604 eBooks Done In The 175 Days Of 2005 We Averaged 9 Per Day 64 Per Week 277 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 5th was the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. *** *Headline News from Edupage [PG Editor's Comments In Brackets] SUN BROADENS OPEN SOURCE RELEASES Just weeks after Sun Microsystems published the source code for its Solaris operating system as an open source application, the company announced it would also release the source code of its Java application server software. Offering the two technologies as open source tools is part of Sun's efforts to rebuild momentum and market share lost in the collapse of the dot-com economy, which has hurt Sun more than competitors including IBM, HP, and Dell. The Java language can be used to develop applications that run on a variety of computers and other electronic devices, such as cell phones. By moving the Java software to open source, Sun hopes to broaden the number of developers working with Java (already estimated at 4.5 million) and give the company a stronger foothold in various markets. According to John Loiacono, head of Sun's software group, making the source code for the Java application server software available will help Sun sell "services, systems, storage, and design services" to greater numbers of customers. Reuters, 27 June 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8897847 DEFENSE DEPARTMENT TO CREATE VAST STUDENT DATABASE Officials at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have proposed the creation of a database containing information on virtually every college student in the country, as well as many high school students. Intended as a tool to aid recruitment efforts, the database would include names, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, ethnicities, grade point averages, and other data. The DoD's database bears similarities to another database proposed by the Department of Education. That database would track individual students through their college careers, providing a clearer picture of graduation rates than current records, which track only aggregate rates from institutions. The Education Department's proposed database has drawn criticism from privacy advocates, who see it as a potential risk to privacy. The DoD proposal has similarly elicited complaints from groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). According to EPIC, the database would be a "bad idea," putting tools of direct marketers in the hands of government officials but without affording consumers the same protections from government that they enjoy from marketers. Inside Higher Ed, 23 June 2005 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/23/database MICHIGAN SHARES GOOGLE CONTRACT [We should be aware that the contract with the New York Public Library never included copyrighted works, but only their public domain books.] In an effort to address concerns that have arisen over Google's project to digitize vast numbers of books from several libraries, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has made its contract with Google available online. Google has entered into agreements with libraries at Michigan, as well as Stanford University, Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and the New York Public Library, to scan most or all of their books, including those still protected by copyright. Books in the public domain will be made available on the Web; for those under copyright, only short excerpts will be online. Critics have contended that simply making digital copies of copyrighted books is a violation of copyright protections. The contract states that if either party becomes aware of copyright infringement, it will be quickly addressed. The contract also indicates that, aside from compensation for costs of transporting books, the university will receive no money for its participation in the project. John P. Wilkin, associate university librarian at Michigan, said he hopes that by making the university's contract publicly available, critics will see that there is nothing sneaky going on between Google and the library. Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 June 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/06/2005062001t.htm ALA SAYS NEARLY ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES OFFER FREE INTERNET ACCESS [I think there is an error in the first mention of 21 percent. Perhaps the 1994 date should have been 1984. Sent inquiry] A study released this week by the American Library Association (ALA) indicates that 98.9 percent of libraries in the United States offer free Internet access, up from 95 percent in 2002 and just 21 percent in 1994. In addition, the study found that 18 percent of libraries offer wireless access, with another 21 percent expecting to offer it within a year. Rates of access, as well as bandwidth and the likelihood of wireless access, were higher in urban than in rural parts of the country. Nearly 40 percent of libraries use Web filters to prevent minors from accessing adult content on library computers. Carol Brey-Casiano, president of the ALA, commented that the availability of Internet-connected computers at libraries could be one reason the number of annual library visits has risen from about 500 million in the early 1990s to 1.2 billion today. New York Times, 24 June 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/national/24library.html You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, send e-mail to: edupage@educause.edu To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU 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 *** *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA Zinmbabwe Passes Human Rights Bill Overshadowing US Rights Yes, people in Zimbabwe now have rights even Americans don't! They can assemble for protest marches without getting a permit! Even though the United States Consitution guarantees people the "right to assemble," and for "redress of grievances," the rights were curtailed by the Nixon administration and never returned. Of course, this isn't the only such example these days: The UN wanted to send election monitors to the United States, but the Bush II adminstration refused, they were already winning. Amnesty International rates the United States as one of the most problematic areas in the world in terms of human rights, torture and other issues. * Eminent Domain, Paying Increases Taxes As Bribery Is Ruled As Legal by the United States Supreme Court Yes, this subject has been covered, but the subject of taking the land for public use has NOT been covered as having been converted to taking land for private use. It's one thing to take someone's property against their will to create highways, railroad, public water plants, etc. It's quite another to take someone's property against their will to build a luxury high rise, a McDonald's, a Disneyland, a mall, or any other privately owned plainly commercial enterprise. What only a few commentators have addressed is the fact that the case is fundamentally a case legalizing the bribery of cities by stating that the new owners will pay higher taxes than old ones. What USED to be a bidding war between cities to GIVE TAX BREAKS to corporations to get them to come to town, now, as companies have become more powerful than cities, the companies now offer TAX INCENTIVES to the cities as a bribe to encourage the cities to give them access to land already owned my private citizens, no matter how long they have owned the property. Another fact left out of current reporting is that the practice of using eminent domain for corporate projects did not start in Connecticut or Indiana, but was going strong in Ohio beforehand. * Turkey As An EU Member: It's About The Money, All Over Again Again the commercial factor has been left out of all reporting, and they expect you not to notice that Turkey is the gateway to India and China as a trading route and thus bringing Turkey into the EU would be highly profitable merely in terms of an enhanced trade opportunity with these two giant new economies. In addition, Turkey has one of the largest standing armies, which will give the EU much more power to enforce its will. * Nike Is Falling Apart, It's Still About the Money Remember when Michael Jordan was paid more by Nike than ALL the workers who made ALL the Nike shoes? Perhaps it is turning out that you really can't build solid businesses on these kinds of practices. * Another Supreme Court Ruling Against Human Rights The Supreme Court also ruled that the police could not be sued for failure to enforce court restraining orders, even when this results in the death of the people supposedly protected by such restraining orders. * *STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK Yet More Rights Rescinded by the United States Supreme Court The case of the reporters involved in the story about Valerie Plame, undercover agent for the CIA, whose cover was blown in apparent retaliation against her husband by the Bush White House, is now the stage for the undoing of confidentiality of the press by the Supreme Court. Two years after the event, even after the unprecedented naming of a special prosecutor to find the person who leaked her name, there has been no one brought to trial for this offense. Even Robert Novak, whose article sparked the entire controversy, as a result of Ms. Plame's name being leaked to him, is somehow free of these legal entaglements, but Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of The New York Times are instead being threatened with jail if THEY don't tell who leaked the information, even if Ms. Miller never wrote about it. Somehow Novak, the direct user of the leaked information is now off the hook, but others are being hooked in his place, and the new Supreme Court decision has placed the entire free press of the United States in jeopardy to protect this effort to place blame on others than Robert Novak, the originator of the story. DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK I'm guessing the above stories are enough doublespeak for a week. Especially when you consider that this kind of threat was not used on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post when they broke the Watergate stories and refused to name "Deep Throat." If the Nixon administration didn't try this strategy with Woodstein, then why is the Bush II White House doing this to Cooper and Miller? However, there is still more doublespeak that should be mentioned: The Republicans are saying public media, PBS and NPR, are too political. In a totally unrelated story: Patricia S. Harrison, former chair of the Republican party, was slated as the new head of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, overseer of funding for both PBS and NPR [The Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio]. Ms. Harrison apparently has no experience in the area of public broadcasting whatsoever. "This is a fatal blow to the historic political neutrality of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting," said Senator Frank Lautenberg. The current head, also a Republican, has been reported as being too soft on retaliation against people such as Bill Moyers, who, a Conservative himself, once worked for President Lyndon Johnson, who, although a Democrat, was such a Conservative that many recall him as more of a Republican. Of course, Bill Moyers no longer has his NOW program on PBS, but that part is being ignored as he is pillaged just as if he were still there. * And lastly, we heard Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice say: "The fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty." [So why no UN election monitors allowed into United States elections?] "The day is coming when the promise of a fully free and democratic world, once thought impossible, will also seem inevitable." "When we talk about democracy, though, we are referring to governments that protect certain basic rights for all their citizens -- among these, the right to speak freely. The right to associate. The right to worship as you wish. The freedom to educate your children -- boys and girls. And freedom from the midnight knock of the secret police." [Not to mention those who were excommuniated for voting against Bush.] "The day must come when the rule of law replaces emergency decrees." [Not to mention "The War Against Terror."] "Opposition groups must be free to assemble, and to participate, and to speak to the media." [Not to mention those who were invited to various Bush events, but were arrested and removed when they wore anti-Bush T-shirts, even though they had official invitations.] "They must accept the rule of law, they must reject violence, they must respect the standards of free elections. . . ." *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of The New York Times will go to jail rather than divulge their sources, and Time and the New York Times will stand behind them, and so will most of the world press corps. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 50 million Americans live in various kinds "gated communites." That means out of just a handful of people, one is most likely living in such an "arranged community." * 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 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 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 So They Asked For A poem on love is what they daily ask for they demand it really, they call for it honest people with honest views and honest desires so here it goes from me to you overnight delivery like a boomerang that will soon enough come back and hit me right in the face, Bullseye, I'll holler and it'll make the woods tremble Then I'll laugh out loud ha ha without embarrassment. I can't find my eye, where is my eye This is getting really hilarious, Has anybody seen my eye [I mean the inner eye you dummy] If love is the product of society of long hours of work processing and searching data digitalized internet-ized by our intelligentsia on the context of our fruitful economy and growing industry, I don't want to purchase it at retail stores. Not wholesale either. I don't want gallons of it, pounds of it, boxes of it loads of it tons of it zillions of it I don't want whole sets of emotions just like I reject whole sets of ideologies I want this stuff to be expensive - spiritwise classy fancy dandy randy clever witty and pretty no refunds policy no returns ever no money back guarantee no 30 days to fool with it, mess with it, and bring it back put it on the shelf ready for the next purchase I don't want it merchandised labeled marketed publicized on the isles of any store I don't want it bought, priced up, redeemed 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: help@pglaf.org