AOL-Time Warner laid off about 2,000 people on Tuesday (1/23), for a total of 2,400, CNet.com reported.

The Associated Press reported that paleontologists who discovered in Madagascar a previously unknown dinosaur named the dinosaur Masiakasaurus knopfleri, after guitarist-songwriter Mark Knopfler [ tickets ]. The paleontologists were reportedly listening to a lot of Knopfler's old band Dire Straits [ tickets ] while digging.

Culture Club has split from its label Virgin, their manager confirmed on Wednesday (1/24).

With six nods, Nelly Furtado [ tickets ] leads the field of nominees for Canada's 2001 Juno Awards. Barenaked Ladies landed nominations for five Junos, which are Canada's equivalent to the Grammys. A complete list of nominees is available at the official Juno Awards website.

On Tuesday (1/23), a Los Angeles radio show reportedly played a tape of Britney Spears [ tickets ] talking unaware into a live microphone at the Rock in Rio festival. Allstar published a transcript of the tape:

Don't tell me they're just letting the audience just f------ stand out there like that. Oh my God. Ok let's hurry y'all, seriously. This retarded. They told me they were gonna do a vamp [or, continue playing intro music until she was ready]. Thank you baby. Oh ... s---! Oh, noooo, what are they doing? [pause, mumbling] Let me see ... [then she screams] Oh, my pants are too short! I grew! I thought they were gonna ... I know ... I'm not just gonna stand out there. I thought they were gonna f------ vamp. OK, OK thanks. This is retarded.

See? She was just a little panicky about the show.

You get in your car in the morning, and you turn on the radio, and you hear the opening chords of that song that's so elusive, and the magic music makes your morning mood, then all of the sudden the music fades out and is replaced with "And we're back. Coming up on 'Yammering Idiots in the Morning,' we talk with some other idiot," and the mood is gone and you think, "Oh, that's right, I've chosen to live in Los Angeles." We know, "It's like that everywhere," but we expect more from L.A. radio for some reason.

From staff reports, compiled by James Woster.