CDNOW.com was an online retailer. The company was founded in February 1994 by twin brothers Jason Olim and Matthew Olim of Ambler, Pennsylvania. Initially launched as a telnet service in August 1994, CDNow became a retail website in September 1994—far earlier than most of the dot.com retailers that gained notoriety after 2000.

CDNow was one of the 1990s' most well known websites, first for its offering of the largest number of albums in quantity and variety available on the Internet, second, as a source of All Star Music News and very substantial numbers of record reviews and other editorial content related to music, third, as a source of the first online interviews with popular artists, and finally, CDNow was the first place to sample the most popular music in RealAudio format. The first samples were uploaded near the end of 1995, bringing the site the definitive Bookmark status on publications and web guides in those years.

Earl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson (born May 17, 1941) is the senior United States Senator from Nebraska, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Nelson entered politics in 1990, when he was elected the 37th Governor of Nebraska. He was re-elected in 1994 with 74% of the vote. Nelson ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate in 1996, losing to Republican Chuck Hagel, and left the Governor's office in January 1999 due to term limits, after serving two full terms. Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2000 election after incumbent Bob Kerrey retired.

On December 27, 2011, Nelson announced that he would not seek a third Senate term in 2012.

Nelson was born in McCook, in southwestern Nebraska. He is the only child of Birdella Ruby (née Henderson) and Benjamin Earl Nelson. He earned a B.A. in 1963, a M.A. in 1965, and a J.D. in 1970 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nelson made his name and money in the insurance industry. After graduating from law school, Nelson landed a job as assistant general counsel for Central National Insurance Group of Omaha. In 1975, he became state insurance director before going back to work for Central National Insurance as an executive vice president and eventually president. He won his first elected office in 1990 when he became governor of Nebraska.