I’m way late on the Trent Lott-is-a-racist-Dixiecrat-who-doesn’t-want-to-place-his-lips-near-the-same-drinking-fountains-as-blacks theme, but better late than never. First, check out Oliver Willis’s cool multimedia presentation on same – graphic representation is often more powerful than a welter of words alone. Oliver rocks, hard. I won’t rehash the story, which is everywhere, but I will …

There was much pontificating and speculation that 24 was a one-time deal, that the novelty of a mystery-adventure TV show taken in real time, one hour at a time, had worn out its welcome last year. I had concerns of my own because serial TV has a very hard time …

Nothing particularly new, but George Colony of Forrester Research has a nice summary of where we are now in the history of the entertainment industry: entertainment business models have worked phenomenally in the past 75 years. Edwin Booth, the superstar American stage actor of the mid-19th century, had fame and …

Scathing report on payola in the American Latin music biz from the Miami Herald: Edgar Alvarez quit being a promoter in Spanish-language radio two years ago. But on this afternoon, he is making some calls from the South Miami offices of his recently opened talent agency to show how his …

The big stories come and go so quickly. Remember the MAP (minimum advertised price) settlement story from the end of September? five of the largest U.S. distributors of pre-recorded music CDs and three large retailers agreed to pay millions of dollars in cash and free CDs as part of an …

Same Dr. Feelgood doped Winona Ryder and Courtney Love.

I am so zeitgeisty I frighten myself. After a shamefully long pause, I just mentioned the “brilliant and exquisite” Virginia Postrel the other day. The “brilliant” part has always been self-evident, but now the “exquisite” part is on more prominent display than ever. Go vote for which of her three …

Reuters reports: Reducing the size of the on-off switch in the transistor, known in the industry as gate length, boosts chip performance and speed, and lowers manufacturing cost and power consumption, IBM said. The proof-of-concept transistor measures six nanometers — about 20,000 times smaller than the width of a single …

Copyright scholar Neal Netanel has written a thought-provoking paper on compulsory licenses and P2P. He views P2P networks as valuable in themselves, but threatened by copyright law, the ultimate purpose of which is to make information available to the public. For the purpose of compensating artists AND promoting use of …

N.Z. Bear’s Weblog Action Center has chosen a not just worthwhile, but indeed inspiring Cause of the Week: the protesting students of Iran. Let’s make sure they don’t end up under tanks like the Chinese students of 13 years ago. Go to the site and express your public support for …