Domain approved for porn websites
Domain approved for porn websites
SAN FRANCISCO
You’ve heard of “.com” and “.org.” Joining them soon will be “.xxx” for pornographic websites.
On Friday, the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet’s naming system, approved the creation of a red-light district online. It follows a decade-long battle over such a name.
The uproar over the idea has created unlikely bedfellows.
Pornographers worry it will ghettoize their content. Although it’s meant to be voluntary, they fear governments could try to mandate the domain’s use, so that pornographic content is more easily blocked.
Religious groups argue that giving adult websites their own corner of the Internet legitimizes the content.
States mull tax cuts on cigarettes
CONCORD, N.H.
Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue.
Supporters argue reducing the tax by a dime would make New Hampshire more competitive with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, while opponents say that even if the state experienced higher sales as a result, it still would lose millions of dollars in revenue.
It’s very unusual for states to lower the tax, University of Illinois at Chicago economics professor Frank Chaloupka said.
Moon to appear bigger, brighter
LOS ANGELES
There’s a full moon tonight, but it won’t be just any old full moon. It’ll be bigger and brighter.
It will appear larger as it makes its closest approach to Earth in 18 years.
Scientists estimate the “supermoon” rising in the east at sunset will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter at its peak.
Associated Press