PGWeekly_November_12.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, November 12, 2003*
*****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers Since July 4, 1971******
eBook Milestones
>>> 4,000+ eBooks In The Last 12 Months!!! <<<
We're Over 3% Of The Way From 10,000 To 20,000!!!
10310 eBooks As Of Today!!!
It took over 32 years from July, 1971 to October, 2003 for our 1st 10,000
It took only 8 years--August, 1995 to November, 2003 for our last 10,000
[From 310 to 10,310]
We hope to reach 20,000 eBooks in 2005. . . .
***
We have the first copy of our "10K Special" DVD nearly ready, more below.
Let me know you the URL to download, or need us to snail a copy to burn.
***
Send in xeroxes now if you need copyright research from Michael Hart!
***
*** gutenberg.net moving to ibiblio.org/gutenberg ***
After many happy years at http://promo.net/pg, we will be moving
gutenberg.net to a different server over the upcoming days.
There will be a few days of transition, as the Internet name servers
get their updates. When the transfer is complete, gutenberg.net
(including www.gutenberg.net) will still work correctly, but will
point to our NEW Web pages at http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg
***
[The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 19/53 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 319 Ebooks/Yr
And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
We Are Averaging About 348 Per Month This Year!!!
*** HOT Requests!!!
For those of you who are trying to get some PR for Project Gutenberg,
the UPI said this week:
"These are momentous times in the digital content industry. . . .
"Project Gutenberg - the pioneering and largest depository of free,
mostly "plain-vanilla" (text only) e-books - added the 10,000-th
title to its unsurpassed collection. In the meantime, e-book
aggregators, such as blackmask.com, now proffer tens of thousands
of free titles for download in up to 8 file formats. Even Microsoft
has spent the last few months offering a free weekly selection of 3
commercial titles each, exclusively readable on its MS-Reader application."
***
Project Gutenberg is seeking graphics we can use for our Web
pages and publicity materials. If you have original graphics
depicting Project Gutenberg themes, please contribute them!
To see some of what we have now, please see:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/images
***
Volunteers Needed For Some Harder Reformatting Than Usual
Please look at this URL, and see what we can use. We have permission
for all of them. Reformatting to plain text may be a challenge.
http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/eBooks-otherformats.htm
http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/eBooksLiterature.htm
***
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
- Requests For Assistance
- Progress Report
- Flashback
- Continuing Requests For Assistance
- Making Donations
- Access To The Collection
- Information About Mirror Sites
- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
Updates/corrections in separate section
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
83 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
- Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage
- Information about mailing lists
*** Requests For Assistance
Interested in music? Project Gutenberg's music project
(http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/music) is seeking people to
digitize musical scores. We also have a small budget to
work on publicity recruitment for our sheet music efforts.
Email Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> if you would like
more information.
***
Project Gutenberg DVD Needs Burners
So far we have access to a dozen DVD burners. If you have
a DVD burner or know someone with one, please email me
so we can plan how many DVD's we can make with all 10,000
Project Gutenberg eBooks on them when they are ready. We
can likely send you a box of CDs containing most of these
files early, and then a final update CD in November when
you would download the last month's/weeks' releases.
I have the first test 10K Special DVD here right now!!!
Nearly all of our first 10,000 eBooks, and multiple formats!
*** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES
Project Gutenberg is seeking (volunteer) lawyers. We have
regular needs for intellectual property legal advice
(both US and international) and other areas. Please email
Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> ,
if you can help.
*** Progress Report
[Disclaimer: We have several people and programs who count
up the Project Gutenberg eBooks and help create the statistics
we provide. Every once in a while these don't agree, and we
have numbers that slightly disagree, even as to the number of
weeks in a given year. . .for example, 2003 has 53 Wednesdays,
so we will have 53 Newsletters, and thus will count 53 weeks,
at least some of us will. . . . ;-) This week is unusual,
because we are in the process of reestablishing our databases
after reaching eBook #10,000 a few weeks ago, and the programs
are not yet back to running at full capacity. Thus, we have
had several mere mortals counting up the books and disagreeing
on how many there are. I counted 87, George counted 84, and
one day we didn't get any reports at all, so we could both be
somewhat off. Hopefully next week we will get back to normal.]
In the first 10.25 months of this year, we produced 3,570 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our first 3,570 eBooks!
That's 45 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 Years!
87 New eBooks This Week
71 New eBooks Last Week
87 New eBooks This Month [November]
348 Average Per Month in 2003 <<<
203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<<
103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<<
3,570 New eBooks in 2003
2,441 New eBooks in 2002
1,240 New eBooks in 2001
=====
7,251 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 34 Months!
10,313 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
6,297 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
4,016 New eBooks In Last 12 Months <<< Record!!!
291 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli of Rome, Italy*
Check out our Websites at promo.net/pg & gutenberg.net, and see below<<<
to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers
even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog.
eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists.
***
FLASHBACK!!!
3570 New eBooks So Far in 2003
It took us 31 years for the first 3570 !
That's the 45 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #3570
Dec 2002 The Complete Essays of Montaigne, Cotton [MN#20][mn20vxxx.xxx] 3600
Dec 2002 The Essays of Montaigne, V19, 1877, Cotton [MN#19][mn19vxxx.xxx] 3599
. . .
Dec 2002 The Essays of Montaigne, V1, 1877, Cotton [MN#01][mn01vxxx.xxx] 3581
Dec 2002 Complete Life Of Napoleon, By Constant [NB#30][nc13vxxx.xxx] 3580
[Full Title: The Complete Recollections Of The Private Life Of Napolean]
[Author: Constant, Premier Valet De Chambre] [Tr.: Walter Clark]
Dec 2002 Private Life of Napoleon, V12, by Constant [NB#29][nc12vxxx.xxx] 3579
. . .
Dec 2002 Private Life of Napoleon, V1, by Constant [NB#18][nc01vxxx.xxx] 3568
Dec 2002 Complete Memoirs of Napoleon, by Bourrienne[NB#17][nb17vxxx.xxx] 3567
Dec 2002 Memoirs of Napoleon, V16, by Bourrienne [NB#16][nb16vxxx.xxx] 3566
. . .
Dec 2002 Memoirs of Napoleon, V1, by Bourrienne [NB#01][nb01vxxx.xxx] 3551
[Author: Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne]
Nov 2002 La Mere Bauche, by Anthony Trollope [Trollope #12][merbuxxx.xxx] 3550
Nov 2002 Cowley's Essays, by Abraham Cowley [cowesxxx.xxx] 3549
Nov 2002 The Pharisee And Publican, by John Bunyan[Bunyan5][pharpxxx.xxx] 3548
Nov 2002 See America First, by Orville O. Hiestand [cusa1xxx.xxx] 3547
Nov 2002 The Eureka Stockade, by Carboni Raffaello[Carboni][rkstkxxx.xxx] 3546
[Wrote as Carboni Raffaello, however Carboni was really Raffaello Carboni]
Nov 2002 The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith #3[cpwogxxx.xxx] 3545
Nov 2002 How He Lied to Her Husband, by George Bernard Shaw[lied2xxx.xxx] 3544
Nov 2002 Heartbreak House, by George Bernard Shaw [GBS #16][hrtbkxxx.xxx] 3543
Nov 2002 Quotations of Jacques Casanova, by David Widger #6[dwqjcxxx.xxx] 3542
Nov 2002 Thoughts Evoked By The Census Of Moscow by Tolstoi[tecomxxx.xxx] 3541
Nov 2002 Article On The Census In Moscow, by Leo Tolstoi/11[ancimxxx.xxx] 3540
[Also listed under Lyof and Tolstoi, middle inital is N.]
***
Today Is Day #315 of 2003
This Completes Week #45
56 Days/10 Weeks To Go [We get 53 Wednesdays this year]
9687 Books To Go To #20,000 [18 months from 4 weeks ago]
We're hoping to do this in 80 to 100 weeks
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
Week #4 Of Our *SECOND* 10,000 eBooks
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
39 Only 39 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
*** Continuing Requests For Assistance:
Project Gutenberg--Canada will be starting up soon.
Please let us know if you would like to volunteer!
Copyright in Canada is "Life +50" as in Australia,
and we have volunteers working on both of these.
We will also be seeking volunteers from others of
the "life +50" countries.
email: Diane Gratton <diane_xml@hotmail.com>
***
People interested in TeX/LaTeX documents on Project Gutenberg
please contact: tex@spacerad.com <<<We're Doing Einstein!!!
***
DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES
Please contact us at:
dphelp@pgdp.net
if you would like to know more about the Distributed Proofreaders.
Thanks to very good recent publicity, the Distributed Proofreading
project has greatly accelerated its pace. 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.
If you have a book that has been scanned, but not yet run
through OCR (optical character recognition) or proofed,
and you would like the Distributed Proofreaders to work on it,
please email dphelp@pgdp.net and we will get things started.
Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the
Project Gutenberg collection. To see what is already online,
visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file),
since the online database doesn't reflect recent additions.
Do you have Public Domain books your would like to see in the archive?
Can they be destructively scanned? If so send them to the Distributed
Proofreading Team! Please email dphelp@pgdp.net with your geographic
location. You will be given the address of the nearest high-speed scanner
(note that the high-speed scanner requires destruction of the book(s) which
will not be returned). Alternatively, you can send your books directly to:
Charles Franks
9030 W. Sahara Ave. #195
Las Vegas, NV 89117
Please make sure that any books you send are _not_ already in the archive
and please check them against David's "In Progress" list at:
http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html
to ensure no one is currently working on them. It would also be helpful if
you obtain copyright clearance before mailing the books, and send the 'OK'
lines to
dphelp@pgdp.net
Do you like to work on an entire book at once but don't have the time
or technology to do the scanning, OCR, and initial proofing yourself?
Distributed Proofreaders has the perfect solution! Just send us email
telling us that you are interested in post-processing and we will help
find a you project you would like to work on.
***
We Have Included Quick and Easy Ways to Donate. . .As Per Your Requests!
We Are Looking For Volunteers To Add eBooks In More Languages,
and in more formats, including music, artwork, movies, etc.
***
QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG
A. Send a check or money order to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
809 North 1500 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
USA
B. Donate by credit card online:
NetworkForGood:
http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541
or
PayPal to "donate@gutenberg.net":
http://www.paypal.com
/xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.net&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of
volunteers over more than 32 years. Your donations make it possible
to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the
creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and
transfers from any country, in any currency.
Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
(PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by
the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employee Information
Number (EIN) 64-6221541.
For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to
http://promo.net/pg/donation.html or email donate@gutenberg.net
*** HOW TO GET EBOOKS FROM OUR MIRROR SITES
http://promo.net/pg (aka http://www.gutenberg.net) allows searching by
title, author, language and subject. Mirrors (copies) of the complete
collection are available around the world.
http://gutenberg.net/list.html can get you to the nearest one.
These sites and indices are not instant, as the cataloguing needs to be
done by our professional Chief Cataloguer.
--"INSTANT" ACCESS TO OUR LATEST eBOOKS-- Several Options In Progress!!!
Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
site (or a mirror) if you know the filename you want. Try:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04
or
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
and look for the first five letters of the filesname. Note that updated
eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.)
--"INSTANT" ACCESS TO OUR LATEST eBOOKS
EBOOKS NUMBERED GREATER THAN 10000
To get to a directory listing you can use either:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/
- or -
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/1/
. . .navigate down through the subdirectories until you get to the
appropriate level, and then select the file you wish to download,
using your normal download procedures.
FOR EBOOKS NUMBERED 1 THROUGH 10000:
Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
site (or a mirror) if you know the filename and year you want. Try:
http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04
or
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
and look for the first five letters of the filesname. Note that updated
eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.)
*** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 45 weeks of this year, we have produced 3570 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2002 to produce our FIRST 3570 eBooks!!!
That's 45 WEEKS as Compared to ~31 YEARS!!!
With 10,313 eBooks online as of November 12, 2003 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.97 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100,000,000 readers is only about 1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.59 when we had 6297 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine 10,000 books each costing $.62 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine 10,000 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 10,313 eBooks in 32 Years and 4.25 Months We Averaged
319 Per Year [We do more per than that month these days!]
27 Per Month
.87 Per Day
At 3,570 eBooks Done In The 315 Days Of 2003 We Averaged
11.3 Per Day
79.3 Per Week
348.3 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 1st was
the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003 at noon.
This year there will be 53 Wednesdays, thus one extra week.
***Headline News***
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
From Newsscan:
FTC TAKES AIM AT MESSENGER POP-UPS
The Federal Trade Commission has obtained a temporary restraining order
against D Squared Solutions, accusing it of "high-tech extortion" for its
annoying marketing campaign, which bombards Microsoft Windows users with
pop-up ads touting its $29.95 pop-up blocker software designed to prevent
such intrusions. The company set out "to create a problem for consumers and
then try to charge them for a solution," said Howard Beales, head of the
FTC's consumer protection unit. The FTC is seeking to recoup "hundreds of
thousands" of dollars that beleaguered consumers paid to D Squared
Solutions for the ad-blocking software. The ads take advantage of a
security feature in Microsoft's Windows Messenger service that was
originally designed to enable corporate network administrators to send
internal messages. These messages are different from the ones imposed on
users who visit a Web site, said Beales. "What we are challenging is this
'backdoor' kind of advertising, particularly when it is done in a way and
with a frequency that threatens to impair consumers' ability to use their
computers." (Los Angeles Times 7 Nov 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-popup7nov07,1,2914685.story?coll=la-head
lines-technology
PENN STATE STUDENTS BLAST NAPSTER DEAL
Pennsylvania State University is catching flak for yesterday's announced
deal to provide all students with access to Napster's revamped
music-subscription service, paid for by the university's existing
information technology fees. The school had viewed the university-wide
arrangement as a way to circumvent the music download controversy and
provide students with a legal alternative, but some students say they
resent this use of their funds. "The money I pay could go to much better
things such as rebuilding the network or better lab equipment," says one
disgruntled student. "Almost every single student I have talked to is
outraged that their money is going to a program that they don't even want^E
(and that) their money is being sent to the music industry without their
consent." Penn State president Graham Spanier said he had not personally
received any complaints about the new deal and that students didn't protest
over cable TV service and newspaper subscriptions, which were also covered
by mandatory student fees. (CNet News.com 6 Nov 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5103918.html?tag=nefd_top
[Why Is It So Hard For MicroSoft NOT To Play MicroHardball???]
[And You Thought This Was Only About People Pointing Nasty Bugs]
OOPS! MICROSOFT DROPS THE BALL ON U.K. HOTMAIL DOMAIN
Microsoft apparently forgot to renew its registration for hotmail.co.uk,
sending the domain name back into the pool of available names. It was
snapped up immediately by a do-gooder, who then contacted Microsoft to
alert it to its oversight and arrange a transfer of ownership back to the
software giant. However, these efforts to do the right thing were rebuffed
and it was only when The Register contacted the company to inquire about
the snafu that the matter was "escalated" to upper-level officials who then
sought to work out a deal. By all accounts, hotmail.co.uk will be restored
to the Microsoft fold within the next few days. (The Register 6 Nov 2003)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33814.html
["Diversification, philanthropic giving or estate planning. . . ."]
["Sound financial practices."] [Don't You Just LOVE Spin-Doctoring?]
TURNER, BARKSDALE UNLOAD TIME WARNER SHARES
Ted Turner, James Barksdale, and two other directors of Time Warner's board
of directors have been heavy sellers of the company's stock this year,
unloading a total of more than 68 million shares. There have been 52
reported sales and 4 purchases of Time Warner stock by corporate officers
and directors since the beginning of 2003. Time Warner spokesperson Tricia
Primrose said that the four directors "all continue to have significant
holdings in Time Warner," and that each of them is "pursuing some form of
diversification, philanthropic giving or estate planning, resulting in the
sale of shares or the exercising of options, which is in keeping with sound
financial practices." (Washington Post 11 Nov 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28161-2003Nov11.html
[Let's NOT Forget That WIPO, The World Intellectual Property Organization,
Is Part Of The U.N., And Would Undoubtedly Try To Force Copyright Extensions
On All Countries On The Internat, Just As They Have Via Government Lobbies.
In Fact, They Don't Even Hide Their Desire For A Permanent New Copyright!!!]
WILL THE U.N. TAKE OVER THE INTERNET?
Some of the developing countries want to put management of the Internet
under United Nations control. U.N. officials expect governments to continue
talks on Internet governance with the aim of reaching accord by 2005.
Brazil, India, South Africa, China and Saudi Arabia are dissatisfied with
the current Internet regulator, the semi-private California-based ICANN (the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and argue that the
Internet is a public resource that should be managed by national governments
and by intergovernmental organizations. But both the United States and the You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan:
European Commission are standing behind the ICANN model, in the belief that NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class
to turn Internet regulation over to governments could threaten the existence organization making significant and sustained contributions to the
of the borderless Internet. (Financial Times 11 Nov 2003) effective management and appropriate use of information technology.
http://news.ft.com/s01/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullSto
ry&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565743698&p=1012571727102 To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to:
Text version: Send message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com
Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html@NewsScan.com
NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html
***
From Edupage
PENN STATE TO OFFER FREE MUSIC TO STUDENTS FROM NEW NAPSTER
Pennsylvania State University has struck a deal with the recently
launched second-generation Napster to provide online music to all of
the university's students, faculty, and staff. The university
negotiated a discounted fee from Napster--which otherwise charges $9.95
per month--and will pay the cost of the service out of a mandatory,
$160 information technology fee that students pay each year. Penn State
users will be allowed to download unlimited numbers of songs on up to
three computers. Students who want to keep songs after they have left
Penn State, or users who want to save the songs to CDs, will have to
pay 99 cents per song. Officials and student leaders from Penn State
hope that this approach will appease student demand for online music
while satisfying record companies by using the now-legal Napster
service. Some students expressed reservations that a portion of student
technology fees is being used for online music. Students also said that
the restrictions of the new Napster/Penn State deal will encourage some
to continue using peer-to-peer networks that have no restrictions.
New York Times, 7 November 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/national/07STAT.html
FTC FIGHTS WINDOWS POP-UPS
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week shut down a marketer for
taking advantage of a feature of Microsoft Windows to send unwanted
pop-up ads, even to users who were not browsing the Internet. According
to the FTC, D Squared Solutions used a tool called the Windows
Messenger Service--which is enabled by default in Windows systems--to
send pop-up ads selling software to block pop-up ads. Calling such a
tactic extortion, the FTC has temporarily shut down D Squared. The
agency also advised users to disable Windows Messenger, which is not
related to instant-messaging programs. Last month Microsoft recommended
that users disable Windows Messenger as a precaution against the spread
of Internet viruses. Microsoft's Sean Sundwall said the pop-up ads
that take advantage of Windows Messenger do not pose any threat to a
system's security.
Reuters, 6 November 2003
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3771523
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 Mostly Avoided By The Major U.S. Media
The Grocery Store Employees Union strike and lockout
in California isn't getting much coverage, but the
last time something like this happened, it was with
the Meat Cutters Union. That event finished up ~10
years ago with a total drop in meat cutters' pay of
30% during a period in which inflation and the cost
of living rose ~10%, leaving the meat cutters with
just over 50% of their original buying power from
The current event has been sparked by fear of the
proposed Wal-Mart expansion that is scheduled to
build some 40 new Wal-Mart Super Centers in the
affected area, which includes 850 grocery stores
that are currently on strike or in lockouts.
*
Obviously the media DID report on that major high school
drug bust in which a dozen students were handcuffed as
the police ran up and down the halls with guns drawn,
at the request of the school principal.
Amazingly enough, not one single illegal drug was found,
even with the aid of the famous drug sniffing K-9 corps,
nor were any guns found. . .the two stated objectives.
Not even one pill was found from a parent's prescription,
given illegally by a parent to a student for allergies,
or anything else that a parent might give them what was
in a student's legitimate interest, but techinally illegal.
Not even any Viagra was turned up. [Don't forget the grade
school kid who was kicked out of school for bringing some
just a few days earlier.]
People are asking if a similar surprise bust of school staff
and the police station would have come up so empty handed.
*
There Oughta Be A Law. . . .
From personal experience I have the following news report:
In trying to buy my tickets to the upcoming December 10 PG
events, I ended up getting tickets from Orbis that had never
even appeared on the screen. I could see some kind of error
that might have gotten me tickets I had on the screen earlier,
but these were for some other flight than had appeared. They
were to the right places, but at the wrong times. I called up
their 800 number immediately, and was told there would be some
serious fees for cancellation, but I managed to get the flights
cancelled without these fees by insisting that I had called in
only a few minutes after the fact. However, they said they are
going to keep my $800 for 3-4 billing periods on my Visa card.
At the normal Visa rate of 18%, that would be around ~$50.
They just wrote themselves a loan of my $800 for 3-4 months.
There Oughta Be A Law Against This:
Anyone want to inquire with the Federal Trade Commission
or whoever oversees this sort of thing?
They can take your $800 in one second, but it takes 3-4 months
to give it back, even if you call immediately.
*
Low Cost Jobs Are Filled Outside The U.S. Via "Outsourcing,"
While High Cost Prescriptions Must Be Filled Inside the U.S.
The U.S. goverment encourages your employers to send your jobs
to other countries, but won't allow you fill prescriptions in
other countries. . .insuring ever decreasing big business costs
by cutting hiring inside the U.S., and insuring ever increasing
business big business profits by insisting you pay twice as much
for products sold in the U.S. as they are in Canada.
***
From The Ironic Times: making the connections
that other news outfits can't or won't !
U.S. Pulling Troops From WMD Hunt In Iraq
Hunt will be taken over by White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.
GDP Advance Could Spark Job Recovery
Companies may finally hire workers to demolish empty factories.
Bush Court Nominee Faces Stiff Opposition
Attila the Hun has long record of opposing civil rights laws.
Findings Confirm Universe Mostly Dark, Mysterious Energy
Just as Mr. Spock determined on sixteenth episode of "Star Trek."
Study Links TV Problems to Reading
Young children who read too much are likely
to have difficulty watching TV later in life.
***
About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter:
[Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. But
different relays will get it to you at different times; you
can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.]
and
About the Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter:
[Goes out approximately at noon each Wednesday, but various
different relays will get it to you at different times; you
can subscribe directly, just send me email to find out how,
or surf to promo.net/pg to subscribe directly by yourself.]
***
Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists:
For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists
please visit the following webpage:
http://gutenberg.net/subs.html
Archives and personal settings:
The Lyris Web interface has an easy way to browse past mailing list
contents, and change some personal settings. Visit
http://listserv.unc.edu and select one of the Project Gutenberg lists.
Trouble?
If you are having trouble subscribing, unsubscribing or with
anything else related to the mailing lists, please email
"owner-gutenberg@listserv.unc.edu" to contact the lists'
(human) administrator.
If you would just like a little more information about Lyris
features, you can find their help information at http://www.lyris.com/help
---
pgweekly_2003_11_12_part_1.txt
If you liked this post, say thanks by sharing it.