"Webcasters worried that Internet radio would be wiped out by outrageously high royalty rates found little solace on Thursday despite a ruling that slashed a controversial licensing fee in half."

What they did is say that webcasters shouldn't pay more then AM/FM broadcasters when they webcast. I honestly don't know why they were to begin with. However, Soma FM claims this will cost them $500 a day. Many online webcasters claim they can't cover it.

Honestly, they could get everybody to shut up if they made the fees a function of REVENUE rather then LISTENERS, like the BMI/ASCAP fees (which no one complains about). This allows you to build your business without paying out like a big boy when you are still small change. But that would be just too damn easy, now wouldn't it... One wonders if the RIAA doesn't benefit financially from an environment where there are a smaller number of popular artists and wants to tune things that way.

Webcasters' Fees Slashed in Half, no one happy...

"The space rock missed our planet Friday by only 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third the distance to the moon, making the near collision one of the closest ever recorded. "

I hope they get a clue and fund some prevention measures for this stuff. Its only a matter of time before we get whacked by one.

CNN.com - Surprise asteroid nearly hits home - June 20, 2002

"Privacyactivism and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are proud to release version 1.0 of the Carabella video game. This interactive video game highlights the ways that consumers' privacy and fair use rights are being whittled away by digital rights management technologies, online spyware and data profiling services. "

This is strange, but it does a fairly good job of explaining the situation to old men in suits, if those old men bother to play it.

EFF Presents The Carabella Game: The Quest for Tunes

"turning on a gene to make a protein while the DNA is still lodged inside the body--or in the nucleus of a cell in a laboratory dish--would allow someone to avoid infringing a patent. "

Scientific American: Legal Circumvention

The most stark change is the event's location, an auditorium at San Francisco's Legion of Honor, which seats 316. Last year's extravaganza sold out the War Memorial Opera House, capacity 3,100. "

Webbys not what they used to be

"Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing PA territory. These areas will be held by Israel as long as terror continues. Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas."

Let the blood bath begin...

CNN.com - Statement from Sharon - June 18, 2002

"When Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution through natural selection 143 years ago, the scientists of the day argued over it fiercely, but the massing evidence from paleontology, genetics, zoology, molecular biology and other fields gradually established evolution's truth beyond reasonable doubt. Today that battle has been won everywhere--except in the public imagination."

Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense

A banker's view: "Let the ailing networks rot."

Telecom Outlook: First the Bad News, Then the Bad News

"While testing for Oracle vulnerabilities, Mark Litchfield discovered a denial of service attack for Apache on Windows. Investigation by the Apache Software Foundation showed that this issue has a wider scope, which on some platforms results in a denial of service vulnerability, while on some other platforms presents a potential a remote exploit vulnerability. "

Serious Apache Bug

A team from Monash Medical School grew a functioning thymus..."

Herald Sun: Our scientists grow human body part [18jun02]