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I'm confused as to what you're confused about. Somebody got icann.com and iana.com to point to different DNS servers which served A records pointing to third-party IP addresses, so that queries for http://www.icann.com/ and http://www.iana.com/ went to a third-party HTTP server which did not return a redirect to ICANN's official web sites (like ICANN's HTTP server would have), but instead returned something else.

I didn't bother to read the article (I'm not new here), but what about this is unclear to you?

You're being deliberately pedantic. I thought it was perfectly clear exactly what they meant:

Normally, A records for icann.com, www.icann.com, iana.com, www.iana.com and similar FQDNs point to IP addresses of web servers that are configured to send an HTTP redirect (via the Location header) that tells the browser to request e.g. http://www.icann.org/ if http://www.icann.com/ had been originally requested.

While more technically specific, this takes a lot more words to say than "Visitors to those addresses are normally redirected automatically to the organization's main sites at ICANN.org and IANA.org." But we all know what they meant, and anyone who doesn't know what they meant probably doesn't care. So why explain the details?

Just to continue talking to myself.

The web server does not seem to be configured well either. If a webmaster cares about search engine visibility (optimization) then (s)he wants to really redirect the aliases for that server to a single normalized domain name. This is not the case with this web server, it responds under http://www.icann.com/, http://icann.com/, http://icann.org/, http://www.icann.org/ and even http://208.77.188.103/

This leads to duplicate content in the search engines, makes it harder for readers to identify the server as authoritative and is (in my book) simply not an indication of a well managed web server.

Just to continue talking to myself.

The web server does not seem to be configured well either. If a webmaster cares about search engine visibility (optimization) then (s)he wants to really redirect the aliases for that server to a single normalized domain name. This is not the case with this web server, it responds under http://www.icann.com/, http://icann.com/, http://icann.org/, http://www.icann.org/ and even http://208.77.188.103/

This leads to duplicate content in the search engines, makes it harder for readers to identify the server as authoritative and is (in my book) simply not an indication of a well managed web server.

Like I said before in the last ICANN article, why don't you go to ICANN's site and read why the .kids and .xxx applications were rejected.

They (*gasp*) actually do have reasons. And remember, this isn't a contest - "What would be the coolest new tld". There are proposals from individual companies to be based on their merits.
ICANN did not say they disagree with the idea behind .kids and .xxx. They said they had reservations about the ability of the particular companies to implement and manage them _successfully_, both in regards to technical work and content management.

But please, don't take my word for it, get it from the source...

This is NUTS. The two MOST needed TLD's are .kids and .xxx/.porn..

I DO NOT understand their logic at all. This is surely not the brightest thing for them to do, they must be trying to keep their corporate sponsors (donations, fees, etc.) happy for now.

Why don't you go to ICANN's site and read why... Here's a good quote about the issue:

The absence of a clearly defined and globally diverse policy-making and policy-enforcing mechanism for a content-restrictive TLD is particularly troubling where, as here, there are such great divergences among communities, faiths, cultures, and individuals over the correct definition of what is and is not appropriate content for children.

Other potential concerns about content-restrictive TLDs include the difficulty of applying and enforcing content restrictions to email, chat, newsgroups, instant messaging, and other potential uses of the DNS beyond the World Wide Web.

Short answer - Who says what is acceptable or not, how do you enforce it, what is the procedure for resolving disputes. ICANN feels of all the proposals, none of them have provided effective plans for sufficiently addressing all the issues.

who gets to decided which cases to hear, and what rules do they follow? If it's these guys at ICANN, then perhaps, but WIPO?

WIPO is just one of the arbitrators, you can get more information from ICANN.

Look at some of the ideas presented, such as SRI International who wants to:

minutes.degrees.tendegrees.geo. The exact form of the naming convention will be available as a simple downloadable XML schema from the top level .geo domain. No other names are anticipated beyond a few administrative domains.

For example, consider a server with DNS name 10e20n.geo. Since it is a server at the second level of the hierarchy (tendegrees.geo), it is responsible for a 10 degree x 10 degree "cell" of the world. The service area of the cell spans from longitude 10 degrees East and latitude 20 degrees North to longitude 20 degrees East and latitude 30 degrees North.

Or VRx who wants .faq so any answer for blah can be found at blah.faq, 800 & 888 to map toll free numbers (which seems odd to me, you dial 1-800-555-5555 and goto 555-5555.800?) These are just a few of their ideas.

Diebold Incorporated wants .atm for Automatic Teller Machines, which seems like at least one thing you are going to have to goto physically to make much use of it.

And one of my favorites is .SUX which is set up by Jerky Networking, not so much for the name, but that Jerky is wanting it, anyone else remember the Jerky Boys?

Look at some of the ideas presented, such as SRI International who wants to:

minutes.degrees.tendegrees.geo. The exact form of the naming convention will be available as a simple downloadable XML schema from the top level .geo domain. No other names are anticipated beyond a few administrative domains.

For example, consider a server with DNS name 10e20n.geo. Since it is a server at the second level of the hierarchy (tendegrees.geo), it is responsible for a 10 degree x 10 degree "cell" of the world. The service area of the cell spans from longitude 10 degrees East and latitude 20 degrees North to longitude 20 degrees East and latitude 30 degrees North.

Or VRx who wants .faq so any answer for blah can be found at blah.faq, 800 & 888 to map toll free numbers (which seems odd to me, you dial 1-800-555-5555 and goto 555-5555.800?) These are just a few of their ideas.

Diebold Incorporated wants .atm for Automatic Teller Machines, which seems like at least one thing you are going to have to goto physically to make much use of it.

And one of my favorites is .SUX which is set up by Jerky Networking, not so much for the name, but that Jerky is wanting it, anyone else remember the Jerky Boys?

Look at some of the ideas presented, such as SRI International who wants to:

minutes.degrees.tendegrees.geo. The exact form of the naming convention will be available as a simple downloadable XML schema from the top level .geo domain. No other names are anticipated beyond a few administrative domains.

For example, consider a server with DNS name 10e20n.geo. Since it is a server at the second level of the hierarchy (tendegrees.geo), it is responsible for a 10 degree x 10 degree "cell" of the world. The service area of the cell spans from longitude 10 degrees East and latitude 20 degrees North to longitude 20 degrees East and latitude 30 degrees North.

Or VRx who wants .faq so any answer for blah can be found at blah.faq, 800 & 888 to map toll free numbers (which seems odd to me, you dial 1-800-555-5555 and goto 555-5555.800?) These are just a few of their ideas.

Diebold Incorporated wants .atm for Automatic Teller Machines, which seems like at least one thing you are going to have to goto physically to make much use of it.

And one of my favorites is .SUX which is set up by Jerky Networking, not so much for the name, but that Jerky is wanting it, anyone else remember the Jerky Boys?

Look at some of the ideas presented, such as SRI International who wants to:

minutes.degrees.tendegrees.geo. The exact form of the naming convention will be available as a simple downloadable XML schema from the top level .geo domain. No other names are anticipated beyond a few administrative domains.

For example, consider a server with DNS name 10e20n.geo. Since it is a server at the second level of the hierarchy (tendegrees.geo), it is responsible for a 10 degree x 10 degree "cell" of the world. The service area of the cell spans from longitude 10 degrees East and latitude 20 degrees North to longitude 20 degrees East and latitude 30 degrees North.

Or VRx who wants .faq so any answer for blah can be found at blah.faq, 800 & 888 to map toll free numbers (which seems odd to me, you dial 1-800-555-5555 and goto 555-5555.800?) These are just a few of their ideas.

Diebold Incorporated wants .atm for Automatic Teller Machines, which seems like at least one thing you are going to have to goto physically to make much use of it.

And one of my favorites is .SUX which is set up by Jerky Networking, not so much for the name, but that Jerky is wanting it, anyone else remember the Jerky Boys?

WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LINK ANYMORE?!?

...and on the topic...
Has anyone thought of getting off their asses and joining ICANN?

ORG - This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Some non-government organizations may fit here.

It seems that .org indicating a non-profit site is slightly inaccurate perception that has developed. One that loses relevance if browsers can perform searches from the URL Address.