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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: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0510190953440.25142@pglaf.org>

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

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*eBook Milestones
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47 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
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*eBook Milestones*

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 52 This Week

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***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,
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that PT1 is now being sent as PT1A and PT1B.

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*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

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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." This is
her first separate album from the supergroup "No Doubt."

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

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