The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international body that regulates this whole big Internet, released its list of applicants for new .com alternatives today.

ICANN, the international organization in charge of web domain names, has just decided to allow people to register pretty much anything as a top-level domain. That means instead of boring old .com and .net, we could be visiting "www.cute.dogs" soon.

ICANN, the international governing body responsible for doling out website domains, has approved the .xxx domain for porn sites. According to PC magazine, the purpose is to "carve out a portion of the Internet that will be set aside for the adult entertainment industry." Already, over 200,000 .xxx sites have been pre-registered. Finally, a place for porn on the Internet! Oh, wait, isn't that already the entire Internet?

Seven people have been chosen to receive keys that, when used together from a secure location, can be used to "restart the world wide web" after a "catastrophic event." No, really.

The shadowy Masonic cabal that controls the internet will likely approve the ".xxx" domain name system—intended for porn sites and Mötley Crüe drummers—tomorrow. Your "x" key will be worn out by next week. [Reuters]

Soon the days of just .com and .org and .net will be replaced with .whatevs and .moar as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved a proposal to allow the creation of unlimited domain suffixes. [WSJ] (Original photo by Lucie Provencher)

ICANN named New Zealander Peter Dengate Thrush as its chairman to replace Google's Vint Cerf, who now has even less to do. Thrush will be ICANN's first non-American chairman. But that shouldn't keep the world from hating us; the U.S. Department of Commerce maintains veto power over the organization's decisions. [Sydney Morning Herald]