1. This week's Tor.com post, Freddy and the Popinjay, just popped up over at Tor.com.

2. This post from a professional musician about music downloads is long and has been fairly widely posted already, but if you missed it, I think it's worth a read.

3. In the nobody saw this coming bit, Tropical Storm Chris strengthened into Hurricane Chris this morning. It's no threat to land, but a couple of interesting notes: It's rare for hurricanes to form that far north (not unheard of, just rare); it's rare for hurricanes to form in the Atlantic basin in June; and this is the third earliest formation for a third tropical system in the Atlantic season in recorded history.

Statistically, this means nothing for the rest of the hurricane season, and after my disastrously wrong prediction about the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season I should probably not attempt a prediction again, but, just so we're on record with this at the end of the season: I confidently predict that we are in for either a slow season, an average season, a busy season, or an unusually busy season this year. And you can count on that.