Hurricane Francois has already formed in the North Atlantic, off the coast of France.

East Coast domainers are anxiously watching the projected path of hurricane Earl – but a new hurricane has already formed in the Atlantic ocean, off the coast of France.

For years, NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US – has named storms and hurricanes using consecutive letters of the alphabet. After the letter “E” used for Earl, the letter “F” is utilized.

“We took a glimpse into the domaining market, and it’s definitely a tumulus market with lots of violent fluctuations in its climate”, said Patrick Clis, head of NOAA for the East Coast. “We decided to honor one of the most active and unpredictable domainers, Francois Carrillo of Domaining.com – so we named the next storm after Earl “Francois”.

Every year thousands of domainers in the US experience the effects of severe weather – often gathering at DNForum to discuss whether they should attend ongoing domain conferences or just hunker down until the weather improves.

Hurricane Earl’s pass alongside the US East Coast was timed perfectly by the Supreme Being that some refer to as God, others as Nature; the SedoPRO conference ended successfully before the beast that is Earl approached New England.

Meanwhile, hurricane Francois is expected to create chaos in the European and American domain markets; a warning system has already announced the side-effects of Francois Carrillo’s removal of the ClosingAuctions.com newsletter will be severe to the domain industry and to the weather conditions around the world.

According to the latest information, Lucius has been abducted by the very kind and ultra-professional Sedo personnel and he’s been forced to have a great time at the Sedo headquarters in Boston – apparently against his will.

Sedo HQ during the abduction of Lucius

While we are processing further photographic evidence, it’s obvious that after indulging in a grand tour of the remarkably neo-industrial Sedo headquarters, Lucius was given several glasses of champagne, before he was taken on a three hour boat cruise where more drinks were consumed.

There are further rumors about Lucius consuming mass quantities of seafood aboard the ship, where the crew and other Sedo tour participants and associates had an unnaturally great time – something that poor Lucius is not used to indulging into – not to mention, going to an after-hours party for more drinks and scrumptious food.

A view of Cambridge from Lucius' room - but where is he?

The worst part of all this is the loss of voice that Lucius has sustained – mainly from conversing non-stop with everyone during this Sedo plan to abduct our illustrious editor and keep him forever in the harbors of Boston.

With day two of the Sedo conference starting up, it is unclear when or if Lucius will emerge – or whether more unsuspected attendants will mysteriously disappear after all the speeches, discussions and alcohol-enhanced socializing comes to an end.

Frank Schilling is the new proud owner of the Twin Cities network.

Energized after a long weekend snorkeling in the Caymans, uber-domainer Frank Schilling returned to the auction arena.

This time around, Frank – famous for owning the .com of every dish known to man – scored against the notorious “Namejet Reserve“, which he tore to pieces.

“I could not let NameJet Reserve win again, no sir”, said a triumphant Frank Schilling, chilling at his 450 sq.ft. veranda in the Caymans.

“I showed NameJet Reserve who’s the boss and got my trophy domain without much sweating. Just don’t challenge me, I turn into a fighting beast”.

Frank won TwinCities.net at Namejet, scoring this amazing geoDomain for only $1,800 – a complete and utter steal. NameJet Reserve bid up to $1,649.

As many mid-westerners know, Twin Cities is the pet name of beautiful Minneapolis – St. Paul in Minnesota. The .com is developed, so apparently Frank Schilling invested in it with reselling in mind.

Congratulations to Frank for this amazing catch!

It's business as usual for the monkey-spankers on Chatroulette.

This is what happens when one has no specific business plan in mind: direction is lost.

Ultra popular Internet destination, Chatroulette.com was down for more than a week, with the cryptic message displayed on its page:

The experiment #1 is over now. Thanks for participating. Renewed and updated version of the website will be launched today.

In Ruski code-speak this meant that hacking the code to suit a business model had failed miserably. The downtime of more than a week cost Chatroulette a lot of its traffic; the newly launched interface lacks the responsiveness of the old one.

Unfortunately for its 17 year old Russian creator, Chatroulette has never been anything other than an endless masturbatorium for Internet flashers and exhibitionists. Once seen as an opportunity to randomly connect complete strangers around the world, Chatroulette gained notoriety from the endless display of genitalia by its patrons.

The Chatroulette web site, as it appeared Monday, is apparently far from being the final product of the scheduled upgrade. No note or other message about the changes appears on the site.

To the Moon and beyond with Chef Patrick!

Dubbed “Moon Orbit for the Domainer Millennium” the conference will utilize a powerful new service sponsored by Virgin Galactic – the pioneer in space trips for individuals.

“A lot of veteran domainers did not believe me when I said I’d have a cruise for domainers, but I am known for achieving things through calculated risk-taking”, said a radiant Chef Patrick from Palo Alto, California. “With the new Moon Orbit domainer conference I aim higher than anybody else in the domain business.”

Chef Patrick’s project will accommodate a select dozen and a half of top-tier domainers aboard “Genesis One“, the Virgin Galactic spaceship that launches from the Mojave desert. The conference will occur at zero gravity, offering a remarkable view of the earth on the edge of space. Amenities will include astronaut-quality food, power-networking in slow motion and a live auction with the first domains to be sold in space.

“I’d like to add that for those that don’t want to participate yet to the Moon Orbit for the Domainer Millennium conference, to give my DNCruise a chance – I have a special offer for those people at the moment, check out my web site!”, said Chef Patrick before having a meeting with George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic.

Indeed, Chef Patrick’s special offer will lead more unbelievers to his next big project – we can’t wait!

The new Manhattan skyline will be multi-cultural, embracing all religions.

Further down, the newly planned Mosque of International Muslim faith will give Manhattan a majestic, multi-cultural new look.

“We’re looking forward to giving Manhattan a more sophisticated look, worthy of the many religions shared among our citizens”, said John J. Johnson Jr., creative director of the Manhattan Restoration Committee for the Alliance of Religions.

“Let’s imagine for a second that Manhattan and New York became eventually a New Constantinople, full of rich history, hammams and minarets. That would definitely bring millions of pilgrims each year to our city”, he added.

The plan to expand Mahattan’s role in the biggest American city, New York, has been discussed since the September 11, 2001 attacks – when thousands of Americans lost their lives. Almost 10 years later, New York City faces a challenge of times, and is now given the unique opportunity to embrace the cultures and people of difference races and religions in true New York City style.

“I don’t mind seeing a couple of minarets downtown”, said Mariam Ostrowski, manager of Trendy NYC Bar Mitzvah, Inc. “I hear there will be festivals and such, I love middle eastern food and music so why not have these people enjoy Manhattan as well?”, she added.

President Obama recently stated that the all-American right to practice one’s religion is unquestionable and cannot be challenged.

Meanwhile, St. Nicholas Orthodox church that once stood in the shadow of the WTC Twin Towers still awaits permission to be rebuilt at its promised location.

RT @DomainGang - $250,000 got burned up buying Retweet.com

The news of Retweet.com selling for a quarter of a million dollars on Flippa, six months ago, came as an indication that start-ups are willing to invest serious money in domaining and social media.

As we mentioned back then, the existing trademark applications at the USPTO complicated things about which company – other than Twitter itself – would have an interest in Retweet.com

It seems that the buyer of Retweet.com thought they’d have an advantage with the domain, when in fact it appears as if they blew $250,000 out the door.

Australian based Dollar Rose Holdings LTD applied for a trademark with the USPTO in May.

On August 28 (yesterday), the USPTO responded that the application for registering the mark “retweet” has been initially denied:

A non-final action has been mailed. This is a letter from the examining attorney requesting additional information and/or making an initial refusal. However, no final determination as to the registrability of the mark has been made.

The reason: the pre-existence of the pending mark applications for “retweet” and “tweet” by Twitter Inc.

In particular:

The filing dates of pending Application Serial Nos. 77804841 AND 77715815 precede applicant’s filing date.  See attached referenced applications.  If one or more of the marks in the referenced applications register, applicant’s mark may be refused registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d) because of a likelihood of confusion with the registered mark(s).  See 15 U.S.C. §1052(d); 37 C.F.R. §2.83; TMEP §§1208 et seq. Therefore, upon receipt of applicant’s response to this Office action, action on this application may be suspended pending final disposition of the earlier-filed referenced applications.

The real kicker is that both applications by Twitter Inc. are themselves suspended, due to other mark applications that are pending – as we explained in our post earlier.

What a Catch-22 for a company that spent $250,000 on a domain name and is now sitting on the edge of their seat, hoping the trademark application won’t be denied due to the obvious: they didn’t secure a clear field in the trademark arena.

We all know that for quite some time now, Frank is eager to sell. Not sure how much he’d sell Antarctica.com for but since it’s a barely populated continent, Frank should be happy with low six figures.

The only problem with Owen’s post is that due to a lack of “hard returns“, the list was posted on Domaining.com as a long, single line string that pushed the page elements aside (see screenshot below).

Frager Factor's post stretched poor old Domaining.com beyond any recognition!

Meanwhile, there were no display issues on Namebee.com – the domain news aggregator that offers an auxiliary look at domain blogs as far as popularity is concerned.

Francois needs to fix that glitch soon; meanwhile, we had to block The Frager Factor temporarily before he breaks more stuff.

Jimena Navarrete is Miss Universe 2010.

They say beauty and brains don’t go together – in the case of Jimena Navarrete, newly crowned Miss Universe for 2010 this has proven to be wrong.

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1988, Jimena Navarrete captured the audience and the pageant committee with her natural assets and her personality.

Although she started modeling at the age of 16, Jimena is also an avid domainer, with more than 250 quality .MX domains in her portfolio.

But her latest acquisition blows the mind of many seasoned domainers, as Jimena capitalized on the recent opening of the .CO market and is now the proud owner of a domain that was auctioned off right as she was crowned Miss Universe in Las Vegas.

For only $3,000 American dollars, Jimena Navarrete acquired the national hack of Mexi.co – the pride and joy of every Mexican domainer.

“I saw opportunity, my agent he said buy domain, so I did and Dios mio, so happy!”, said a jubilant Jimena. “When I go party at club I will wear Mexi.co domain proud on my chest. Already made t-shirt to give!”, she added.

These days, domain hacks – known for their unique purpose of acting as the shortest URL to a destination defined by both the domain and the TLD – are becoming very popular.

Mexi.co is the ultimate domain for destinations in this American nation and Jimena Navarrete has proven that she is very intelligent – not just drop dead gorgeous.

And that is all good.

But what about the pigeonshit domains that you might be wanting to sell – or even buy?

If you haven’t heard of PigeonDomains.com this is a chance to get acquainted.

Also this is our take on the image currently used by Francois on Domaining.com for the domain auctions.

Pigeoshit Auctions – never miss the pigeonshit domains ever again!

Pigeonshit Auctions is a brand new marketplace for pigeonshit domains.

Images with no controversy are not catchy enough!

Note: Pigeonshit, Pigeon-shit and pigeon droppings are all marks used by Rick Schwartz in accordance with the definition of worthless domains. Copyright 2010 – All rights reserved.

NameJet Reserve - Satan's tool

A lot of domainers are currently very upset - there is a new player in town with regards to NameJet auctions.

Going by the cryptic username “NameJet Reserve” this apparently well-off domain bidder won every major auction recently, leaving only breadcrumbs to the rest of the seasoned domainers.

“I can’t believe this $@!^!er is winning the best names”, said a dejected Frank Schilling.

“You know me, I’m Mr. Cool and all but this sh^&head is pissing me off with the way they took both tan.org and stri.com from my eager hands!”, added Frank.

Nowadays, competition on the NameJet platform has increased due to some alleged secret society that conspires on the auction process. While we could not confirm this, certain satanic rituals take place for the eulogy of domains in the middle of the night – asking for satan’s assistance in order to sell.

“That’s just bullsh^t”, said an irate Lyndon McLigerston, an investor from Leeds, UK. “I have been staying up late past my beer time, skipping going to the pub to meet the lads even, and those f^*ckers are winning all the good stuff. P^ss off!”

Some claim that in fact, “NameJet Reserve” is simply a reserve set by NameJet itself in order to dispose of valuable domains with a minimum selling price (reserve), versus putting them on the chopping block for whatever price they’d fetch.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Birdari Umakulong (right) - owner of a large domain portfolio - pictured with his account manager from Fabulous.com

Having spent the best part of the past decade hidden in the bushland of the Australian Outback, Aboriginal domainer Birdari Umakulong owns a surprising portfolio of domain names.

Birdari Umakulong – or Birdman, as his friends call him – owns a domain portfolio consisting of roughly 10,000 quality .co.au domains, something that not even the best Aussies in the business can claim.

Birdari invested in domains after selling his land that contained precious metals and rare gemstones, making several million dollars in the process.

“Oi storted very yong knowing how to sorvoive in the worst envoironments, mate. And with domains, Oi due my very best to be top of the boisness”, says Birdari while smoking from a long wooden pipe.

“Oi have the pleasure of achieving soccess roight here on the Sydney coast, mate!”, he adds with a broad smile.

This Aboriginal man’s genius has made many Australian newspapers cite him for his numerous achievements in domaining down under.

Unlike most Australians, Birdari does not drink beer and does not own or operate adult sites – something that has become a menace in Australian society recently. Some Aussie domainers, such as Bill Japman and Rick Elduro operate cam girl sites promoting filthy pornography and other lewd acts.

Birdari’s portfolio is entirely monetized at Fabulous.com – the Australian company that has become the #1 registrar of choice among intelligent domainers.

While we fondly remember the days when every TRAFFIC conference was 4 days long, it’s good to know that a lot of business can be achieved in a single day; for example, DomainFest New York was an absolute success.

Here’s a blast from the past – Bill & Bob’s Domainer Conference – enjoy

Prince Nikolaos of Greece and his new Princess wife.

Earlier today, DNJournal announced the sale of Prince.com – a brokered deal by Media Options, the same folks that brokered the sale of Pizza.net for a price between $1 dollar and $1 billion dollars.

Prince.com was owned by a Prince Andrew before the WHOIS for the domain went “dark” and was just sold for $235,000 – hardly a king’s ransom.

The princely domain name was apparently a wedding gift to Prince Nikolaos, second son of former King Constantine of Greece.

Prince Nikolaos was married earlier today to Tatiana Blatnik.

The wedding was held in a monastery near the old port of Spetses, one of the many Greek islands of the Argosaronic.

Blatnik, 29, arrived in a horse-drawn carriage and waved to a crowd of well wishers gathered outside. The 40-year-old Nikolaos arrived by boat, while we were not invited, unfortunately.

Congratulations to the new Prince of Greece, although Greece actually ceased being a kingdom in 1973; the Royal family of Greece is of Danish origin and ruled the land of Aristotle between 1863 and 1967, when then King Constantine was overthrown by a military coup d’état. Since 1974 Greece is a Republic.

Mike Mann in an uber-cool pose

Often praised as a pioneer investor in ccTLDs, Mike has invested in premium .co domains – some of his top registrations include Oil.co, Gas.co and Gold.co.

But surely, nothing can be as damaging for one’s business reputation than to let their personal matters permeate into the business side of social life.

A post on Mike Mann’s facebook page by Rafal Furdzik, [now removed] – is alleging lack of payment for an apparent project; according to his LinkedIn profile, Rafal is a Technology Startup Founder, Technology Team Leader, .NET/C# Architect, Development of Web and Database Systems.

The problem with Facebook is that if you keep your profile wide open, anyone can post at any time. At the time of writing this article and before Mike removed it, Rafal Furdzik had posted the following verbatim:

When will you pay me for my work?? It is not good not to pay people while saying you help poor and charity… Such a scam. Alex, Chip, Lynn, Me, Miguel, that guy from Sex.com and tons of other people. But now all karma comes back to you. What goes around comes around. You have money but you will not be happy by destroying other people lives and will live in misery for the rest of your life. What you do to people is just wrong. You can sue me for this post, but thanks to you I have no money to pay you, so good luck! All I say is truth and people know it.

Rafal Furdzik is alleging Mike Mann has not fulfilled his financial obligations towards him in this Facebook post.

Rafal then selectively links to some of our previous DomainGang posts about Mike Mann, in particular:

• Grassroots.org or not, has Michael Mann lost his mind?
• Haiti to the rescue – Mike Mann comes to his senses – removes drama from LynnMann.com

In both of those posts we had urged Mike to keep his personal matters private; Mike had also responded in the comment section of each post.

Mike Mann definitely possesses the personality of a Gladiator, fighting until the bitter end. While this is often encouraged in a cut-throat business environment, it is saddening to witness all this wasted energy of constant power swings.

Having read Mike’s book “Make Millions and Make Change!” it is obvious that the Achilles’ heel of this brilliant domain entrepreneur is his current family situation; definitely a distraction from the impressive record of professional achievements over the past 20 years.

For the love of God, Mike – Make your Facebook private and keep the vultures away!