“The music won’t stop for Internet radio after a group of webcasters struck an agreement with SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalties for musicians and record companies, over payments for playing music online. … Tuesday’s settlement allows webcasters to avoid per-song royalty payments that were set in 2007 by a special federal court and that many Internet radio providers said would force them out of business.”
Tag: 07.08.09
Shakespeare Theatre Will Furlough Staff This Summer
“The Shakespeare Theatre Company will furlough its 100-plus employees, including Artistic Director Michael Kahn, this summer to help the bottom line. The furloughs will be staggered.” The company’s marketing director puts the move into perspective this way: “Compared to what other people are going through, [the furlough] feels fairly minor.”
Vassily Aksyonov, Russia’s (and DC’s) Vonnegut, Dies At 76
“Vassily Aksyonov, one of many former Soviet citizens to take up residence in the Washington area since the 1970s, lived among us for 24 years. … You’ve probably never heard of him. Yet his death Monday in Moscow at 76 will set off days of mourning in Russia, where our former neighbor was a superstar. Literarily, he played the role of a Russian Kurt Vonnegut, but Vonnegut would have envied Aksyonov’s stature in his homeland — closer to Tiger Woods’s or even Michael Jackson’s.”
Grammar: It’s Not Just A Human Phenomenon
“Primates can intuitively recognise some rules of grammar, according to a study of cotton-topped tamarin monkeys (Saguinus oedipus). The findings do not mean primates can communicate using language, but they do suggest that some of the skills required to use language may be linked to very basic memory functions.”