EstDomains Fights to Survive

The latest news from ICANN is that the Estonian company EstDomains has had their Notice of Termination stayed

Based on an Estonian Court record, ICANN has reason to believe that the president of EstDomains, Vladimir Tsastsin, was convicted of credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery on 6 February 2008.

[…]

ICANN received a response from EstDomains regarding the notice of termination. To assess the merits of the claims made in EstDomains’ response, ICANN has stayed the termination process as ICANN analyzes these claims.

ICANN’s records indicate that EstDomains has approximately 281,000 domain names under its management.

EstDomains is widely known for its ties to cybercrime. Will a change of President be sufficient for ICANN to let them survive?

Hillar Aarelaid, team director of the Estonian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT Estonia)…maintains that Tsastsin long ago ceded control of EstDomains to organized cyber criminals in Russia.

“To understand EstDomains, one needs to understand the role of organized crime and the investments coming from that, their relations to hosting providers in Western nations and the criminals who ply their trade through these services,” Aarelaid said.

Pentagon JLTV Power

The Danger Room sounds unhappy with the management decision to focus on rapid production and deployment for the HumVee replacement, instead of cool new power-plants:

The new trucks, known as Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, are supposed to be tricked out with the latest in vehicle survivability and electronics. But when it comes to the propulsion system, Pentagon seems to have taken a more conservative approach. Rather than opting for a riskier, Prius-style hybrid, the Pentagon seems to be placing a premium on vehicles that could go into production relatively quickly.

This brings to mind an earlier report, which highlighted a “‘Byzantine’ acquisition system that pushes bureaucrats to protect their own programs and priorities, rather than seeking out the best available option”. What is the incentive to seek the best option, let alone who defines best? I still see a lot of “conservative” vehicles on the road, so why would people suddenly think differently, more logically if you will, when they become bureaucrats?

The real irony of all this is that a failure to deploy armor quickly is said to have precipitated IED use, which now in turn has generated a $166 billion purchase order for armored vehicles that can be deployed quickly. That kind of back-patting pocket-filling economic model has to be discouraging for anyone trying to respond in real-time to threats and actually save lives.

The question now really should be whether $166 billion could prevent or at least anticipate further evolution of IEDs (very likely not, since the design is moving in such a “conservative” fashion), or if the money could be better spent infiltrating human networks of bombers to generate support from Iraqis.

Buffet Terrorism

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution warns buffet lovers to get their own plate or face the consequences:

When he was charged for two $7 buffet meals, Linscomb refused to pay for one of them. He said that “there were no signs in the restaurant that said someone could not have some food off your plate,” the report said.

The restaurant staff called police, who came to the restaurant on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and arrested Linscomb on a charge of theft of services. He was taken to Fulton County Jail.

He needed signs? The story ends after he plead guilty to disorderly conduct (i.e. buffet terrorism), which suggests a big fight ensued over $7 for “a couple bites”. I suspect there is more to this because at face value it sounds completely ridiculous.

I taste a liquor never brewed

by emily dickinson

I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove’s door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!

It seems so few learn to drink from nature, and yet it is the most precious liquor…