We recently linked to an essay claiming hip-hop dead as an art form – writer Pierre Bennu didn’t mince any words: I know you’ve been thinking it. And if you haven’t, you probably haven’t been paying attention. The art we once called hip hop has been dead for some time …

Actually, it's up to $20 free for being a living American, and you have to apply for it, but we got your attention didn't we?

Joining the chorus, Scientific American denounces the DMCA and endorses the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s white paper, “Unintended Consequences”. The sides will be considerably more even when the fight is rejoined in the new Congress: The entertainment industry should not feel free just yet to harass users and makers of musical …

Eddie Murray, the second greatest switch-hitter of all time (behind the Mick), who likely solidified his first-year induction with his stellar late-career year with the Indians in ’95, and Gary Carter, “The Kid,” the second-best catcher of the last 40 years (behind Bench), were elected into the Hall of Fame …

All you sci-fi creators get to cogitating, they just found a planet that rains iron: Using a new technique that will be used to search for Earthlike planets, astronomers have found a distant extrasolar planet, a bizarre place of torrid heat, with clouds and raindrops made of iron. A team …

If you – like I – feel that daytime broadcast TV programming is a stinking morass of titilation, innuendo, mindless psycho-babble, self-debasement, and stupefaction, the nyou might be appalled that Judge Judy has new contract for $25M a year. I don’t really give a hoot – if she can get …

There are now 104 separate categories, including Best Non-vocal Performance By a Vocalist (did I make that up, or not?).

Norwegian teen acquitted of charges associated with posting DVD decryption code on Internet – another legal win for decrypters (see Elcomsoft acquittal): The case had been widely described as a “David vs Goliath” battle, pitting 16-year-old Jon Lech Johansen from a small town south of Oslo against huge corporations and …

Windows Media technology to be licensed cheaply: In a bid to secure a central place for itself in the new gadgets that are increasingly the preferred platform for digital media, Microsoft said yesterday that it would license its Windows Media technology to consumer electronics makers at lower prices and better …

Paul Boutin says it’s time to dump the disc: This spring, the compact disc celebrates the 20th anniversary of its arrival in stores, which puts the once-revolutionary music format two decades behind Moore’s Law. The IBM PC, introduced about a year and a half earlier, has been revved up a …