Wes Phillips

On May 16, Amazon.com announced that it would launch an online digital music store "later this year" offering "millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels." EMI, which recently announced that it would partner with the iTunes Media Store to release premium DRM-free MP3 downloads there, "is the latest addition to the store." Amazon claims that every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively as unfettered MP3 files.

On September 25, Amazon announced that its Amazon MP3 download store was open as a "public beta" test. Amazon claims it has "more than two million songs by more than 180,000 artists from over 20,000 major and independent labels," which makes it somewhat less diverse than Apple's iTunes Store, which claims six million songs. However, Amazon MP3 has a few advantages in its corner: its MP3s are higher-resolution, variable bit-rate 256kpbs with no digital rights management—and they are cheaper, 89–99¢ per track, as opposed to iTunes' 99¢ for its 128kbps AAC files (or $1.29 for iTunes+ files, which are DRM-free and 256kbps AAC files).

Virginia Hall was considered so dangerous by the Gestapo that they crafted a Wanted poster with her likeness. The UK made her an MBE and the US awarded her the DSC—the only woman ever to receive that honor. She parachuted behind enemy lines with her "wooden leg in her backpack." So why haven't I ever heard of this remarkable woman?

I've posted a lot of text today, so take a tour of Amiens. Chill out, look around. Beautiful place.