Yesterday the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a plan that will bring huge changes to the Internet Domain Name System(DNS). After a monumental meeting held in Singapore, ICANN’s Board of Directors voted (13 approved, 1 opposed, and 2 abstaining) to move forward with an initiative that will significantly increase the amount of Internet domain name endings.

Internet domain name endings are also known as generic top-level domains or gTLDs.  Currently, there are 22 officially recognized gTLDs; however, the majority of the public has become familiar with gTLDs such as .com, .net and .org.

Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN’s Chairman of its Board of Directors, was quoted on the organization’s website in saying that, “Today’s decision will usher in a new Internet age … We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.”

ICANN and industry experts have asserted that the new gTLDs are expected to revolutionize the way people find information on the web and how businesses plan and structure their web presence.

The new initiative will allow Internet address names to end with almost any word in any language. This will provide a global opportunity for organizations and businesses alike to market their brand, products, or cause in new ways. What kind of new ways? Well, for one thing, corporations will now be able to create their own domain names. For example, if the PepsiCo corporation wanted, they could create and offer domains that end in .pepsi.

If your wondering what the cost to purchase your own gTLD is; be prepared to break the bank.  Word on the street is that prices to register the new domain names are expected to be anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000.  ICANN has noted that the high fees are in correlation with the approximate $20 million it expects to spend on implementing the new policy.

ICANN is expected to provide further details about the initiative through a global campaign that will discuss the dramatic change in Internet names and raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. If your interested in learning more about the ICANN top-level gTLD campaign, stay tuned – applications for new gTLDs are expected to be underway as early as mid-January 2012.

(CNN) — When the news came, animal conservationist Susie Ellis was ecstatic. This wasn’t just an extraordinary pregnancy, but hope for the survival of a vanishing species.

Ratu, a Sumatran rhino, is pregnant and if all goes well, she will give birth at an Indonesian rhino sanctuary in May 2011. Her mate, Andalas, is the first of only three Sumatran rhinos born in captivity in 112 years. His offspring will be the fourth.

“This is a big step forward for the species,” said Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, based in Yulee, Florida.

Sumatran rhino numbers have decreased by more than 50 percent over the last 15 years, Ellis said. They are the rarest of five existing rhino species, having dwindled down to 200 in the wild and 10 in captivity.

Every individual counts; every pregnancy is momentous.

Like other threatened animal species, Sumatran rhinos began disappearing because of human encroachment on their rainforest habitats and the practice of poaching. Rhino horns are commonly sold to make analgesics in some forms of Asian medicine.

But it has been difficult to boost the population, Ellis said.

Sumatran rhinos, also known as hairy rhinos because of their hairy body and tufted ears, are solitary animals that are rarely spotted in the wild. For a long time, researchers did not understand the rhinos’ breeding mechanisms.

One person who made headway is Dr. Terri Roth, director of Cincinnati Zoo’s Center for Conservation and research of Endangered Wildlife. It was under her guidance that Andalas and two other rhinos were born.

Roth was able to determine when a female was ready to ovulate so she could be introduced to a mate at an optimally fertile time.

That’s what happened with Ratu and Andalas.

Andalas, born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2001, was raised at the Los Angeles Zoo. In 2007, the young pachyderm journeyed for 63 hours by plane, truck and ferry to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, 250 acres in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park.

Ratu was born in the wild and had wandered into a village near the park. Ellis said villagers did not know what to make of her; some thought she was an overgrown pig.

After months of gradual introduction by scent, sound, sight and physical proximity, Ratu and Andalas mated.

Ellis and other animal conservationists recognize that breeding in captivity can never be a substitute for protection in the wild, but at this critical point in 50 million years of rhinoceros history, it’s essential to keep the species from extinction.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Ellis said about rhino recovery efforts. “Once they’re lost, they are gone forever.”

Source: CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/20/indonesia.endangered.rhino/index.html?hpt=T2

Today People magazine featured one of Black Rhino Marketing’s latest projects in an article on People.com.  Check out the attention our work is getting for the Endometriosis Foundation of America at http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20272655,00.html.