Domains

Move over, dot-com — get ready for dot-anything. The group that governs Internet domain names is opening up the system so that companies and organizations can apply to create their own versions of .com, .org or .gov. Under the new rules, instead of a coke.com, Coca-Cola might control the domain .coke and assign Web addresses such as drink.coke or bottle.coke. The Marina del Rey group known as ICANN called it "one of the biggest changes ever" to the way the Internet's naming system works.

WASHINGTON - Organizing for Action, President Obama's nonprofit advocacy organization, has sought to be nimble as it ramps up a national effort to back his agenda on gun control measures and immigration reform. But it appears the group didn't move swiftly enough to protect its presence online. An arbitrator has denied the organization's effort to obtain the domain name organizingforaction.net, registered by a quick-moving computer technician in Castle Rock, Colo., on Jan. 18, when the news broke that Obama's former advisors were launching the group.

I suggest the following names for three "new" California domains ("Welcome to Our 51st State--South California," by James Ricci, Oct. 29). As each area exudes a certain aura, I submit: Los Angeles the capital of "Kingdom," San Francisco the capital of "Queendom," and Redding the capital of "Greendumb." Manuel R. Gutierrez Studio City

I'm a longtime fan of wines from the Alsace estate Zind-Humbrecht, which can trace its wine growing history back to the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century. Who wouldn't covet any of their stunning grand crus? But a Tokay Pinot Gris from Clos Saint Urbain from Rangen de Thann, say, is strictly a special occasion wine. The estate's entry-level 2010 Pinot Blanc, however, is very affordable, and it's a perfect white for everyday drinking. Scented with flowers and peaches, it's crisp yet with ripe fruit and a thrilling complexity.

Kudos to Harriett M. Wieder, Kathryn Thompson, Roger Johnson, et al. for having the courage and integrity to stand up at this crucial moment and depart from a Republican Party that has clearly gone haywire! The Republican convention was an eerie display of dangerous divisiveness and inappropriate intrusion into domains which are private and personal. As for me, I'll fight tooth and nail before I let the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the rest of the religious right run my life.

Booster Shots blogged Thursday about Nature's look back at the human genome, published 10 years ago.  Now let's note the journal's look to the future.  Leaders of the National Human Genome Research Institute on Thursday published their strategic plan for the next phase of human genome research. The paper, "Charting a Course for Genomic Medicine From Base Pairs to Bedside," sets up five "domains" for the future of genome research: understanding the structure of genomes, understanding the biology of genomes, understanding the biology of disease, advancing the science of medicine, and improving the effectiveness of healthcare.

If Americans have come to rely on the Internet to search for houses -- and last year, the National Assn. of Realtors says, 84% of all buyers did -- where should one start? The Web is awash in sites that promise to help focus a home search, with an extraordinary range of tools. We asked three firms that measure Internet traffic to list the most-visited real estate websites in the country, excluded a few that weren't relevant to our search and came up with a top 10 list of "for-sale" sites.

California's coastline is full of colorfully named strands like Seal Beach, Pismo Beach and Muscle Beach. However, Tin Can Beach — a wacky monument to littering — is just a memory. The nickname for a 3½-mile stretch of sand just north of Huntington Beach, Tin Can Beach reached the heights of trashiness in the 1940s and '50s when it was the sometime domain of hobos, drinkers, free spirits and vacationers. They built cardboard shacks, erected tents and thought nothing of tossing used cans, bottles, paper plates and other debris to the ground.

City officials tonight will discuss asking the state for money to acquire the 200-acre DeWitt/Platz site in Laguna Canyon and 245 other acres, all by eminent domain. Laguna Beach was allocated $10 million under the California Wildlife, Coastal and Park Land Conservation Act, which provides grants for acquisition of natural lands. Thus far, Laguna Beach has spent $3 million of that. Formal application is required to the state for the remaining funds.

The Anaheim Grizzlies might never materialize, but that hasn't stopped an Anaheim ticket brokerage from reserving the Internet domain name, anaheimgrizzliestickets.com, and a Mississippi college student from reserving the name anaheimgrizzlies.com. Michael Heisley, owner of the Vancouver Grizzlies, faces a March 26 deadline to tell the NBA where he would like his team to play next season, with Anaheim one of five cities under consideration.

Lirac may not have the cachet of nearby Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but I've sometimes scoured wine shops in France looking to turn up a bottle of Domaine de la Mordorée's exquisite "Cuvée de la Reine des Bois. " Fortunately, it's somewhat easier to find here in Southern California. It's worth seeking out any year, but the 2010 may be the best the domaine has ever made — juicy, dark and wild, tasting of ripe berries and plums that drip down your chin. Super-rich and super-concentrated, this blend of equal parts Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah needs bold food.

LONDON - In 2011, the London riots created chaos across the capital as disgruntled youth burned down buildings, looted shops and rampaged in the streets. A recent exhibition in Tottenham, the epicenter of the riots, looked at the reasons why. However, it was not the government that raised funds to set up the exhibit but a couple of dozen ordinary people whose lives had been caught up in the mayhem. "After the Riots - Happiness in Tottenham" is one of more than a hundred projects hosted on an innovative crowd-funding website that is starting to make waves across the United Kingdom.

San Bernardino County and two of its cities abandoned a plan that would use eminent domain to seize troubled mortgages and write down debt for homeowners. The decision strikes a blow to an idea that garnered national attention as a potential -- if unconventional and controversial -- solution to the mortgage crisis. The proposal was unanimously shot down in a vote by members of the Joint Powers Authority that the county and the cities, Ontario and Fontana, formed last year to explore the idea.

San Bernardino County and two of its cities last year created a national stir with a proposal to use eminent domain to seize troubled mortgages and write down debt for homeowners. That debate returns to the county this week, with the first public meeting on the matter since August scheduled for Thursday. Meanwhile, the San Francisco investment firm that initially pushed the plan, Mortgage Resolution Partners, is renewing its call for aggressive action in the epicenter of the state's housing crash.

Before Carl R. Woese, science divided the living world into two types of organisms: bacteria and everything else. But the University of Illinois professor and colleagues in the 1970s discovered that microbes now called archaea look like bacteria but genetically are as different from bacteria as people and plants are. The discovery added archaea as a third domain of living things and helped pioneer the use of genetic sequences. Woese died at his home in Urbana, Ill., on Dec. 30 from pancreatic cancer, the university announced.

In Pursuit of Balance -- a group of wineries that have banded together to change the course of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir production -- is scheduled to host its first Los Angeles tasting event on Feb. 6. In honor of the event, Melrose Avenue wine shop DomaineLA is offering a tasting dinner the previous evening, featuring Sandhi Wines and Arnot-Roberts winery. In Pursuit of Balance's event is set for the London Hotel West Hollywood and is to include tastings from its 28 member wineries and two seminars: "Relevance and Purpose in California Chardonnay" and "Exploring Whole Cluster Fermentation in Pinot Noir.

With the partial exception of Bartletts, great locally grown pears are scarce at farmers markets in Southern California, where warm winters and disease render cultivation problematic. This makes it all the more special that Al Courchesne of Frog Hollow Farm, a rock star organic fruit grower from Brentwood, Calif., an hour east of San Francisco, will make a cameo appearance the next two Wednesdays at the Santa Monica farmers market to sell his legendary Warren pears. Arguably the most delicious pear variety in the world, praised by the likes of Alice Waters, Martha Stewart Living and Oprah Winfrey, the Warren combines the best features of its ancestors, with the intensely sweet, rich, spicy flavor of Seckel, and the larger size and voluptuous juiciness of Comice.

Denise Hamilton's Times Shopper article ("Moscow's Toy Makers Fashion Political Satire," March 8) regarding matroshka nesting dolls from Moscow was interesting. Perhaps other collectors would like to know they are available, and for less expense, at J.C. Penney in Anchorage and souvenir shops in San Marino, Italy. PAT HAMMER Manhattan Beach

Federal authorities seized 132 domain names and arrested one man in an international effort to stop the sale of counterfeit goods during the online shopping day called Cyber Monday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, working with Europol and police in several countries including the United Kingdom and Denmark, targeted sites that sold knock off goods such as DVDs, perfume and even jerseys. Authorities also arrested and charged Gary Hammer with trafficking counterfeit goods.