The House has passed a bill which will give small webcasters some breathing room (original). Small webcasters (i.e., the ones that aren’t making significant revenue) will pay 7% of their expenses in royalty fees yearly. This is very reasonable compared to the proposed .07 cents per song per listener. It’s still higher than a traditional radio station pays, and there’s some question about how much of the resulting revenues will filter down to the artists. It’s important to remember that while this is better than the original proposal, it is not fair. It’s also important to remember that we ought to donate to our favorite stations, since they clearly need the cash.

The National Geographic Photo of the Day (original) is absolutely great — your own little dose of National Geographic photography on a stick. I guess this is sort of the natural complement to the Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Speaking of typefaces, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this (original).

I honest to god am not sure why Below hasn’t gotten more attention. OK, sure, it’s a submarine movie, and we’ve seen one of those this summer. It’s a B movie, clearly. But surely Miramax remembers that David Twohy has directed two B movies so far, and while The Arrival kind of tanked there’s a rumor that Pitch Black did fairly well and launched some bald guy’s career. Or perhaps they don’t. In any case, a week or so before it opens, they released a trailer. No spoilers in the trailer, although it gives the setup for the movie and makes it clear that it’s a horror flick. I am so much going to see this.

I’ve got to stop doing this; it’s raising my blood pressure. But where does the Pentagon get off complaining about Iraq sneakily hiding arms before the UN inspectors arrive? I’m sure Iraq is hiding arms, yes; it’s a fairly obvious conclusion. Now. Who’s been holding back UN inspectors? Where’s the delay coming from? Hint: it’s not bloody well the inspectors dragging their feet.

You know how you can be muddling along in your life, never realizing there’s something missing, and then all of a sudden boom there it is? That one object that will fill the elusive hole in your existence? The object that calls to you, not like siren luring you to disaster, but like an old friend you’re meeting for the first time? That’s how I feel about this (original). Now with Mac OS X support.

Gaiman wins! Neil Gaiman’s essentially been suing Todd McFarlane to clarify who owns the rights to Miracleman (who is not from the Spawn universe), along with Angela, Cagliostro, and Medieval Spawn (who are) (original). The jury found for Gaiman and the trial now enters the damage phase, in which the jury decides who gets what as a result of McFarlane’s misconduct. This is excellent news in that it probably means we’ll see Miracleman reprints. Plus, hey, you gotta cheer for Neil.

daidala is another one of those cursed typographical blogs; lovely stuff, written by a man with a wise enthusiasm for the craft of typography. He points me at Bitstream’s Cambridge Collection (original). $200 for 200 fonts, none of them spectacular showy display fonts, most of them rather nice: that’s what I call a good deal. And the license is for five users! And it comes with a poster! And a Gill Sans clone in three weights!

In a spate of weakness and nostalgia, I picked up Callahan’s Key earlier this week. (I am riding the bus to work these days, which means I get to read all the good books I haven’t gotten around to yet. But also that I run out of books to read.) Sum total of information imparted is this: Key West was a great place to live in 1989, and the current owners of the marina at which Travis McGee docked are ignorant idiots. Thanks, Spider! ...

“If New Jersey had better beaches it would almost be Florida.” Senator Robert Torricelli (D) decided to end his reelection bid on September 29th, because he was in a horrendous hole of his own making; namely, his ethical lapses came to light and he slipped behind in the polls. Certainly you can’t make people run for office. On the other hand, it’s clearly not legal to replace Torricelli with an alternate Democratic candidate; New Jersey law says if someone ends his bid within 51 days of the election, his party can’t put someone else in his slot. (Or her slot.) So in theory the Republican candidate is going to be elected no matter what. ...