Another U.S. Drone Crashes and More in Chad’s Steaming Pile

Here are just a few things in Chad’s Pile that you will hear on Lubbock’s First News this morning. Give Chad your feedback on the steaming topics.

1. Drones (link)

I don't think people should start freaking out yet, but it seems as though the U.S. Drones are having a mind of their own. Yesterday, the United States lost another drone due to mechanical failure.

"A U.S. Air Force remote-piloted MQ-9 crashed at the Seychelles International Airport in Mahe. The MQ-9 was not armed and no injuries were reported," the embassy said in a statement.

The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) confirmed the incident and said that the plane was on a "routine patrol" and had crashed because of mechanical failure.

The U.S. embassy did not comment on the plane's mission and said that the cause of the crash was unknown.

Iran announced on December 4 it had downed a U.S. drone in the eastern part of the country, near Afghanistan. It has since shown the plane on television and said it is close to cracking its technological secrets.

I'm pretty sure the U.S. has lost more than just two drones before, but because of the big story out of Iran, it will make news every time for the next few weeks. Speaking of Iran, how about President Obama asking Iran to give back our drone. Really? Asking them to give it back? No demands? Good job Mr. President. And, do these things not have a self detonating devise?

2. God Particle (link)

Have scientist found the so-called 'God Particle'?

At a specially-arranged seminar at the Cern laboratory in Geneva, researchers presented clues in their data which suggest experts may have pinned down the "God particle" at last.

Scientists remained cautious about their findings and insisted they did not represent an official discovery, but admitted the results were "intriguing".

The two teams searching for the Higgs boson at the LHC said they had found hints which point towards a Higgs boson with a mass between 124 and 126 gigaelectronvolts (GeV).

A mass of 125 GeV is equivalent to about 130 times the weight of a proton found in the nucleus of an atom.

The team working on the ATLAS detector said there was only a one per cent likelihood their results occurred by chance rather than reflecting a real effect, while the CMS team quoted a figure of about five per cent.

What do you think about this kind of research? Does it intrigue you at all?

3. XXX domains (link)

Are .xxx domain names a waste of money? Will porn companies actually use them? One author may surprise you.

Is it just me or is the ICANN plan to corral online porn going terribly wrong? We already have reports that universities are snapping up XXX domains in an effort to get ahead of porn pranksters who want to besmirch a few good online names with smut.

I guess this turn of events was obvious to anyone with half a brain.

Legitimate porn sites have little interest in the triple X domains, which went on sale earlier this week, for their businesses because they see them as potential censorship and, more importantly, they thrive on people accidentally stumbling on their URLs.

In the early days of the web this was common because porn purveyors snapped up known names and brands -- none of which had to feature an obvious porn domain label. That's how "Whitehouse.com" ended up, for a time, as a porn site.

.XXX was designed to improve the situation. No more accidentally typing in, well, something you didn't intend. With a designated porn domain, it's unlikely anyone would end up in the wrong place.

A stimulus for GoDaddy?

While I see the parallels with the early days of the web, this situation is different in one fundamental way: Those snapping up the domains for protection will never use them. No one outside the porn industry wants to run a live XXX domain website. These businesses and universities are simply buying them in what GoDaddy actually calls "Defensive Registrations" to hide them from view forever (and they'll pay GoDaddy yearly fees to do so).

Instead of creating a solution, the ICANN's apparently misguided efforts have spawned a new anxiety: "Your Brand Name in Porn." The fear is so strong that it's got all these people buying up domains just so the wrong people can't get them. As I see it, this could be quite a windfall for GoDaddy. The company should send the ICANN a thank-you note.

Part of me thinks the author is right. I doubt anyone would ever use texastech.xxx, but when it comes to some other domain names, I think those will be used.

These and many more topics coming up on Wednesday’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App.