Is it just me, or do this person and this person seem to have a lot in common?
Here’s a potentially interesting developing story: a 16 year old claims that the domain AOLBeta.Com was stolen from him by AOL. He registered the domain name when it came available, and a day later, the domain was transferred to AOL without his consent. This is only interesting because AOL is itself an ICANN accredited domain registrar, and the domain name is now registered through their in-house registrar. Clearly it seems that AOL abused their powers as a domain registrar to transfer the domain name without permission. If that is indeed what happened, it will be interesting to see what, if any, action ICANN takes.
The “drug war” has been one of the most embarrassing public policy initiatives of the last decade or so, but it’s about to get a whole lot worse, as we start writing checks to support an all out shooting war in Colombia. We’re about to spend a whole lot of money to finance a raft of human rights abuses in Latin America, and it’s not going to solve anything. Does anyone really think that disrupting the coca trade in Colombia will somehow reduce the supply of cocaine in the world? In the history of mankind, I’ve never heard of anything that people really want going out of production. As long as there are drug addicts, there will be a drug trade. Blowing up or defoliating half of South America isn’t going to change that.