Greg Newby (R.I.P. 1965 - 2025)

 Project Gutenberg
   Over 50 years ago the American, Michael Hart began assembling a digital library of eBooks which would be freely available to everyone. There are now over 75,000 works in the collection which can be accessed by anyone with a computer. Thousands of volunteers are involved and one of the major ones was the Canadian, Greg Newby who was born in Montreal. He died in Whitehorse on Oct. 21, 2025 and his passing is worth noting.
   A thorough obituary by John Last is found in The Globe and Mail, Oct. 31, 2025: "Project Gutenberg CEO Greg Newby Helped Put a Trove of Literature Online." It begins this way:
   "Greg Newby was eight years old when he wrote a letter to Santa Claus and finished it with a simple request: “Make sure other people get things too.” 
   It was that spirit of generosity that drove Mr. Newby throughout his life as he helped spearhead one of the most significant public service projects in modern internet history: Project Gutenberg, a massive online library of more than 75,000 free, public domain texts....
   He is remembered by his colleagues at the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the non-profit overseeing the Project Gutenberg collection, as a “Fourth Industrial Revolution visionary,” who helped marshal the chaotic, creative forces of the early internet to help serve the public interest....
   Mr. Newby quickly became “undoubtedly the most consequential volunteer” in the history of the project, according to Simon Rowberry, a historian and author of The Early Development of Project Gutenberg, c.1970-2000. "
   

   He was clearly an interesting fellow, who ended up in the very far north.
  "The following year, Mr. Newby relocated to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he soon swapped his massive collection of science fiction books for a collection of altogether different type: retired sled dogs. Always animal lovers, Mr. Newby and Ms. Kingsley already owned five dogs when they moved into a house with eight retired huskies onsite. “All of a sudden, we had 13 dogs,” Ms. Kingsley recalls.“
   At first … we had a ‘no more than seven dogs in the house’ rule,” she said. But Mr. Newby could not resist a puppy dog stare, sneaking more and more dogs into the house while Ms. Kingsley was away. “Soon, we had 16 dogs in the house.” His family says he cared for more than 80 dogs over his lifetime.Mr. Newby’s time in the North also saw him develop his passion for outdoor pursuits, nurtured throughout a childhood of family camping trips and Boy Scout excursions. While he participated in his first ultramarathon as early as 1998, he later competed in several 100-mile sled races and Arctic ultramarathons – resulting in frostbite to his toes.
   Mr. Newby cycled through several other jobs in his last few years: a stint at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, where he oversaw the purchase of a $100-million supercomputer; a role with Compute Canada, a national research group; and finally, a period as eServices manager at the Government of Yukon. He and Ms. Kingsley have called an off-grid cabin on the shore of Lake Laberge their home for the past five years. 
   But this remoteness did not isolate him from the community of internet pioneers he had helped nurture. On message boards across the internet, news of his passing was greeted with great sadness by former students and collaborators, who admired his stoic nature and steady leadership. His final years with Project Gutenberg saw the pioneering use of new artificial intelligence technology to convert thousands of public domain texts into audiobooks, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Microsoft. The technology was made publicly available, for free. In 2023, Time magazine named it one of the best inventions of the year."
Sources: 
   Mr. Newby's website is here: "Greg Newby's Personal Pages."
   See the Wikipedia entry: "Gregory B. Newby." 
   More is found on the Gutenberg.org website. 
   For Canada, see also, Gutenberg Canada. 
The Bonus:
   Remember also, another massive volunteer project - INTERNET ARCHIVE.
"Closing the Book on 2025
   As another year comes to a close, we are so grateful to share all of the achievements and projects that 2025 brought us, with all of you—our amazing supporters and patrons. See below for some of our most significant moments from this year, none of which would be possible without your continued support. 
What We’ve Achieved
1 Trillion Web Pages Archive
   This year, the Wayback Machine archived its 1 trillionth webpage—making us the largest publicly available repository of web history. These web pages represent more than just numbers; they have a real impact on people's lives, research, and memory. Since 1996, the Internet Archive has worked with libraries and partners around the world to build a shared digital library of humanity’s online history: capturing websites large and small—from breaking news to forgotten personal pages—so they remain accessible for future generations. Details are provided here."

Periodical Ramblings (17)

    I write periodically about periodicals and this is a post about an annual publication, which is also considered to be a periodical. Even publications published once a year are having trouble and I am sorry to report that another one is disappearing.

The Farmers' Almanac
   That is the periodical that is ceasing publication. It was the newer almanac for farmers, which has only been around since 1818. It was a family-owned publication, issuing out of Lewiston, Maine.

The Old Farmer's Almanac
   This almanac is indeed older, having been around since 1792 and it is still being produced by Yankee Publishing in Dublin, New Hampshire. The publisher's of it, want you to know that, "The OLD Farmer's Almanac isn't going anywhere." 

   

The Old Farmer's Almanac: Canadian Edition
   Like many, I suppose, I didn't realize there were two almanacs for farmers and am glad that one has survived. There is even a Canadian edition of it and I recently purchased a copy from the Home Hardware close by. The black circle in the upper left corner is actually a hole, so the book can be hung from a nail for handy reading.
  The 2026 edition "Being the 2nd after Leap Year and (until July 1) 158th year of Canadian Confederation --- Fitted for Ottawa, With Special Corrections and Calculations to Answer For All the Canadian Provinces. Containing, besides the large number of Astronomical Calculations and the Farmer's Calendar for every month in the year, a variety of New, Useful, & Entertaining Matter."

   Beneath that description there is a picture of a wood engraving and then this bit of verse by the Canadian writer, Marjorie Pickthall, "Look up to outer vastness unafraid And see the stars which sang when Earth was made."

   

  The Old Farmer's Almanac will again be a stocking stuffer for a grandson who says he enjoys it, or is at least polite enough to say so. Like you, he is not a farmer, but there is a lot in it that is not agricultural. Along with the "astronomical calculations", there are also many astrological ones, which I hope he is not interested in, and there are many pages devoted to weather matters, a subject which is of interest to everyone. The OFA people say that "the bedrock of this humble publication is our long-range weather predictions -- correct, or close to it, much of the time." 
   I am writing this on the last day of November, on a cold and snowy one and we have already had others. So far, the OFA is correct. Under the "Regional Forecast" for Southern Ontario, there is this summary:
"Winter will be colder and drier than normal in the east with below-normal snowfall, while it will be warmer than normal in the west with above-normal precipitation and snowfall. The coldest periods will be in mid- and late December, early and late January, and early February, with the snowiest periods in late November and early and mid February." 
   As the above indicates, there is Canadian content, appropriately enough, in a "Canadian" edition, but there may not be enough French for some. It should be mentioned, however, that "Secrets of the Sugar Bush" does include the Indigenous.
   The invention of the Internet may be one of the reasons why the other almanac is ceasing to publish, and the arrival of AI may cause problems for this one. The answers to some things are easily provided by the Internet, and AI questions appropriately framed will likely yield reasonable answers to such queries as "When is the proper age for the first mating of my cat?" (See the "Gestation and Mating Tables,"- 12 months, p.229).
  Still there is something to be said for "serendipity" and stumbling across articles about "Pingos" and "Skirrets", two new things you will now google. 
  Plus, the OFA does include ads., such as this one for, "The Amish 'Secret' to Prostate Woes?" and another ---"STOP EVIL: Sprinkling Salts & Yard Dressing to move out all evil enemies and jinx [sic] on you and your home..." But, I am happy to note that there are often disclaimers at the bottom, such as the one below these ads."  "We make no supernatural claims. All items sold as curios only."

   We hope our grandson reads the small print and pays attention to such suggestions as: "Plant peas when forsythias bloom."

Sources:
   Perhaps it is worth documenting the disappearance of things such as these. There are articles noting the demise of The Farmers' Almanac found in early November of this year. For example:

"Farmers' Almanac Editor-in-chief Explains Why it's Ending After 200 Years:

An Announcement by the Farmers' Almanac that it will cease publication has sparked an outpouring from readers and confusion with another almanac," NBC News, NOV.7, 2025.

"The Cute Yellow Old Farmer’s Almanac Isn’t the One Shutting Down

“There are TWO. This is not The OLD Farmer’s Almanac that has been around since 1792. Everything is fine. Just chill guys”

By Laura Hazard Owen, Nieman Lab,  Nov. 7, 2025
   The publishers of the Farmers' Almanac indicate that their website will be gone soon, so we will have to rely on the Internet Archive for that.
   The Old Farmer's Almanac is found here: 

By the way, The Old Farmer's Almanac is more popular than you might think. On the Toronto Star's bestseller list for Nov. 15, it is ranked Number 5, one spot ahead of Guinness World Records in the "Non-Fiction" category.  At the end of November, it is the Number 1 "Nonfiction" title listed in the Washington Post. 

Bonus:
   Many years ago when Montgomery Ward disappeared, I was the Director of a Business Library and thought it would be a good idea to grab their website, since I assumed it would also go. We did, and for a while some perplexed reference librarians were wondering why the University was getting queries about Montgomery Ward. I just looked and was pleased to find that the material grabbed from the now defunct Montgomery Ward website and our commentary, can still be viewed on the Wayback Machine/Internet Archive - Montgomery Ward: 1872-2000.

Purchasing Power

  

Global Real Estate Deals
   The President of the United States is ridiculing some countries and is, in turn, being ridiculed for his ridiculous idea of simply buying some places he wants. It may be, however, that he was a better student of history than he was a businessman.  Such deals have been done. Louisiana and Florida were purchased, as was Alaska, and the Danes sold to the Americans their much warmer properties in the Caribbean. 

  It is generally thought these days that areas were simply possessed (mainly by Europeans), rather than purchased. That was not aways the case. For examples see the Wikipedia entry for: "List of Territory Purchased by a Sovereign Nation From Another Sovereign Nation." 
Post Script:
  When Wikipedia first appeared it was also the subject of ridicule and feared, particularly by those who answered questions in libraries. It seems, however, that it works well and I doubt if AI alone would have come up with a list such as the one provided above. If you don't have enough money to buy even a bungalow, perhaps a donation to Wikipedia would make you feel better. Then, to make sure it is still around for a while, send some money to the Internet Archive since you may have noticed that some things that you used to look at on the Internet are now found only on the Internet Archive. Both are provided free from non-profit organizations that exist mainly because of volunteers. 

A Short Commercial Break

Internet Archive

   You may not know about the Internet Archive, but you will have used it if you use the Internet and we should all support it. It is the library for all of those rotten links that no longer work for you and a massive graveyard where all of the Internet content produced is saved. And you can visit this cemetery for free. Here is what has been saved to date:

35 billion web pages

41 million books and texts

14.7 million audio recordings (including 240,000 live concerts)

8.4 million videos (including 2.4 million Television News programs)

4.4 million images

890,000 software programs

Classic TV Commercials

  I rarely watch current television commercials, but remember some from the past which serve as historical markers over the years. Chances are good that if you want to pull up a commercial from your childhood, you will be able to do so from the Internet Archive where over 17,000 are found dating back to 1949. They can be searched by year, by subject and media type and there are even some non-commercial public service examples. Click on the link above to learn more about the Internet Archive. Click on the links below for some enjoyment:

Cars - A Mustang Mid-60s Ad - The Car Even Had a Stereo-Sonic Tape Player.

Canadian - There are many. See this Zellers one from 1999 or this one from the Nova Scotia Department of Health in 1996.

Cigarettes- There is more Canadian content in this Viceroy ad from 1963 with William Shatner. 

   

   There are even commercials for products that no longer exist. If you have 1:36 to spare, see these Classic Commercials for Defunct Products where you will learn about hair products such as "Tip Toni Curl Permanent" or "Satin Set." 

   Listen to the songs from the decades when you were younger with, K-Tel's Let's Disco Album Commercial or Time-Life's CD set of Love Songs of the 60s. 

 And let's not forget Jim Varney, who you will remember as "Ernest." 

The Bonus: 

  During the summer of 2023 you will have not been able to avoid "Barbie." Here she is over 60 years ago - See "Early Barbie Doll Commercials." 

A REAL COMMERCIAL - DONATE HERE. 

I can assure you that I get nothing if you do so. I just think such efforts need to be supported. Do so quickly since Muicahy's Miscellany may disappear soon and suddenly from whatever cloud it is in.