GWeekly_April_27.txt *The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, April 27, 2005 PT1* *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971****** Newsletter editors needed! Please email hart@pobox.com or gbnewby@pglaf.org Anyone who would care to get advance editions: please email hart@pobox.com 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 Wanted: People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc. * Darwin!!! Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers. * Project Gutenberg of Canada needs your help! 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Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive! * 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.] 51 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright *Headline News from Edupage *Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists *** *eBook Milestones 16,107 eBooks As Of Today!!! 12,760 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001 We Have Produced 1151 eBooks in 2005 We Are ~61% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000 We are ~22% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000 3,893 to go to 20,000!!! We have now averaged ~476 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971 We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004 We Are Averaging About 307 books Per Month This Year We Are Averaging About 72 eBooks Per Week This Year 56 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. 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About 250 books per month 16,107 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 12,486 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 3,621 New eBooks In Last 12 Months 434 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia * PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE: Since starting production in October 2000, Distributed Proofreaders has contributed 6,714 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 #98 of 2005 This Completes Week #14 and Month #03.00 [364 days this year] 266 Days/40 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 4,003 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 74 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 14 weeks of this year, we have produced 1041 new eBooks. It took us from 7/71 to 7/97 to produce our FIRST 1041 eBooks!!! That's 14 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 YEARS!!! FLASHBACK! Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1151 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] Dec 1997 The Story of the Volsungs [re: Wagner's "Ring"] [vlsngxxx.xxx] 1152 Dec 1997 The Nibelungenlied [Another Source for The Ring] [nblngxxx.xxx] 1151 Dec 1997 The Danish History/Books I-IX, by Saxo Grammaticus[dnhstxxx.xxx] 1150 Dec 1997 From London to Land's End, by Daniel Defoe [DD #6][lndlexxx.xxx] 1149 Dec 1997 Itineray of Baldwin in Wales, Giraldus Cambrensis [itwlsxxx.xxx] 1148 Dec 1997 From This World to the Next, by Henry Fielding #2[jtwtnxxx.xxx] 1147 Dec 1997 Journal of A Voyage to Lisbon by Henry Fielding #1[jlsbnxxx.xxx] 1146 Dec 1997 Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope [See Zenda]# [rprhnxxx.xxx] 1145 In the Cage, by Henry James 1144 Notes on Life and Letters, by Joseph Conrad 1143 Dec 1997 Typhoon, by Joseph Conrad [Joseph Conrad #18][typhnxxx.xxx] 1142 Dec 1997 Selected Poems of Oscar Wilde [Oscar Wilde #17][spoowxxx.xxx] 1141 Dec 1997 Latter-Day Pamphlets, by Thomas Carlyle[Carlyle#4][latdaxxx.xxx] 1140 Dec 1997 Fisherman's Luck, by Henry van Dyke [Van Dyke #3][fshlkxxx.xxx] 1139 Dec 1997 The Research Magnificent, by H.G. Wells [Wells#13][rschmxxx.xxx] 1138 Dec 1997 A Lover's Complaint, by William Shakespeare [WL][1ws44xxx.xxx] 1137C . . . Nov 1997 King Henry VI, Part 1, William Shakespeare [WL][1ws01xxx.xxx] 1100C Nov 1997 The Riverman, by Stewart Edward White [White #3][rvrmnxxx.xxx] 1099 Nov 1997 The Turmoil, A novel, by Booth Tarkington [BT#5] [turmoxxx.xxx] 1098 Nov 1997 Mrs. Warren's Profession, by G. B. Shaw [Shaw #4] [wrproxxx.xxx] 1097 The Faith of Men, by Jack London 1096 * Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet??? With 16,107 eBooks online as of April 27, 2005 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.96 from each book. 1% of the world population is 64,379,848 [x 16,107 x $.97 = ~$1 trillion] [Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.] With 16,107 eBooks online as of April 27, 2005 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.62 from each book, This "cost" is down from about $.80 when we had 12,486 eBooks a year ago. 100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population! At 16,107 eBooks in 33 Years and 09.75 Months We Averaged ~476 Per Year 39.7 Per Month 1.30 Per Day At 1151 eBooks Done In The 112 Days Of 2005 We Averaged 10.28 Per Day 72 Per Week 307 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] FEWER COLLEGE STUDENTS PURSUING COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREES [Because of the .com bust] A new report from the Computing Research Association (CRA) shows a significant drop in the number of college freshmen in the United States who say they plan to major in computer science. The CRA looked at data from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles and found that between fall of 2000 and fall of 2004, interest in computer science fell by more than 60 percent and is now 70 percent below its all-time high. Interest among women has fallen even further, said the CRA, dropping 80 percent since 1998 and 93 percent since 1982. The CRA also conducted surveys of higher education institutions and came up with similar results. The report goes on to suggest that the United States will have difficulty meeting the demand for IT workers in coming years, increasing the gap with countries including India and China that are producing larger numbers of computer science graduates. "Freshmen interest levels at any given point have been an accurate predictor of trends in the number of degrees granted four to five years later," according to the report. CNET, 22 April 2005 http://news.com.com//2100-1022_3-5681438.html ISU CONSIDERS LAPTOP REQUIREMENT [For students, not for faculty] The Faculty Senate at Indiana State University (ISU) has put its support behind a proposal to require incoming freshmen to purchase laptops beginning in the fall of 2007. Under the proposal, written by a university committee, the university would recommend a particular model, which would be available at reduced cost, though students could obtain a waiver that would allow them to purchase a different model. Officials at ISU noted that most students already have a computer and said that the requirement would allow the university to see advantages from having standardized systems that could be incorporated into academic programs. Critics of the proposal pointed out that faculty would not be required to use computers in their classes. Concerns over the added cost to students were also raised by students and faculty who oppose the plan, while others said having computers in class could be a significant distraction. Tribune-Star, 22 April 2005 http://www.tribstar.com/articles/2005/04/22/news/top_stories/top02.txt GOOGLE TRIES NEW AD PROGRAM [More ads, flashier ads, longer download times] Internet search engine Google has implemented changes to its ad program that allow advertisers more options for what their ads look like and where they appear. Initially at least, the new ads will not appear on Google's own sites but will potentially be included on the thousands of sites to which Google provides ads. Until now, Google ads were textual, and Google only placed ads on sites that were related to the advertised product or service. A Web site about wine, for instance, might get ads from Google about other wines, cheese, or other directly relevant topics. Under the new program, Google will allow graphical elements, including some animation and video, and advertisers can decide which Web sites will display their ads. The program changes the model from a pay-per-click arrangement to one in which advertisers pay simply to show an ad. New York Times, 25 April 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/technology/25google.html EUROPE INTRODUCES .EU DOMAIN The long-awaited .eu Internet domain will be operational by the end of 2005, according to officials of the European Union. Supporters of the domain name have been working for six years to reach an agreement under which the domain can be launched. Representatives of the European Union believe the new domain will provide a sense of identity on the Internet for organizations based around Europe, though it will not replace existing country-specific domains, such as .uk or .de. In an effort to limit cybersquatting of names in the domain, new domain names will only be granted to companies and trademark owners for the first four months. Members of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, advised that all offers of early registration for the domain could well be fraudulent and should be treated with skepticism. BBC, 21 April 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4470797.stm JUDGE REJECTS RIAA'S EXPEDITED SUBPOENAS A federal judge in North Carolina handed the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a legal defeat in its effort to learn the identities of two students accused of illegal file sharing. The RIAA had sought the identities from the students' universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, under an expedited subpoena process the group has since abandoned. In a December 2003 decision, another federal judge had rejected the expedited subpoenas, which did not require a judge's signature, ruling that Verizon could not be forced to disclose identities of its customers. In their capacity as Internet service providers (ISPs) for students, universities were given similar protection from the expedited subpoenas. In this case, Judge Russell A. Eliason ruled that an ISP that does not store information but merely transmits it cannot be compelled under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to reveal identities of its users. After the 2003 decision, the RIAA began filing individual "John Doe" lawsuits for illegal file sharing. Under that process, which costs the RIAA more time and money than the other, ISPs can be forced to turn over identities of users. Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 April 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/04/2005042201t.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: 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 *** *HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA No follow up on the huge Texas City oil refinery explosion. * No Weapons of Mass Destruction Yesterday it was announced that the search for the alleged weapons of mass destruction whose suspected presence was the official reason for the U.S. invasion of Iraq ended. After millions of man-hours all leads have been exhausted and no WMDs or further leads have been discovered. [NPR] * In a separate news conference, the official statements of the new intelligence community leadership under Negroponte indicate that the two greatest failures of U.S. intelligence were missing the 9/11 attacks and being duped into thinking there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. *STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said in Russia that there was too much power in the Kremlin and not enough independent news media in Russia. It would seem others are saying the same thing about the U.S. White House gaining too much power and a similar decline in a previously strong independent media in the U.S. DOUBLESPEAK OF THE DAY The richest man in Italy says that Prime Minister Berlusconi resigned due to pressure from a biased liberal media. He neglected to say that he owns 90% of the Italian media in which he voices a conservative point of view. By the way, that richest man in Italy. . .is Berlusconi. . . * The Bush Administration came out on the side of family rights to decide on who decides to "pull the plug" in hospitial care, but 1998 Bush signed a Texas law that took such decisions out of the hands of the family. * The new Pope said that his job was to defend the church against "the monstrous terrorism of modernism." *PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK U.S. car sales will continue to go down, while U.S. home sales will continue to go up. *ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK Even while announcing that inflation has been curbed, numbers are being released that show 30% higher inflation for 2005 in the first quarter than the annual rate for 2004. .6% Inflation for March, 2005 [7.5% Annual Rate] 3.3% Inflation for 2004 [Annual Rate] 4.3% Inflation for 2005 [First Quarter] Cost Price Index = CPI * Speaking of inflation, how many of you know "grade inflation?" This is a trend caused by schools refusing to flunk out those who can't even read so they can receive more money through an assortment of per capita subsidies, athletic program tickets, and various other reasons. Even counting that half the students never make it to a degree in four years, or even if extended to five years, the average grades given in most colleges has been higher than a "B" quite some time, and is still inching up. Thus a "B" is now "below average" even though a "C" is supposed to represent "average." This trend, when compounded by the fact that more and more people are receiving college degrees, which should bring the average way down as more than the best students enroll, means that inflation of grades is even more intense that previously thought, as these grade would have to be inflated even more to discount the average of the greater number of midrange students. Approximately 1/3 of all U.S. young people get a college education in modern times, a much greater number than the 14% I remember for the period when I was researching colleges. Does anyone have some statistics for the total U.S. % with college degrees? * 56% of all U.S. college graduates are women. Even more for those receiving advanced degrees. * Drug Pushers There is one commercial drug rep for every 6.8 Drs in the US. * 25-30% of high school and middle school students can't read. First Lady Laura Bush on The Tonight Show last night. * "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. *** *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. 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