The reason that domain name registrars like GoDaddy.com (which does give you a 5-day grace period) and 1and1.com won't give a refund once you've registered a domain name is because they are middlemen who have to pay the .com, .net, etc. registries to reserve those names for a period of time. So if they allow refunds, the cost of those domain names would fall to them. To cancel a registration with GoDaddy, you have to do it within 120 hours from when you sign up online, otherwise it's too late -- the money has exchanged hands and the domain is reserved. Many other registrars don't give any grace period.

For more info, go to:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar
  
• http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4759442_domain-name-registration-work.html
  
• http://www.internic.net/ (click on Search WhoIs in the middle of the right-hand column and enter a domain name to see when it expires)
  

There are many resources available to help individuals and businesses set up Facebook pages that will attract "Likes" -- and also services that will help promote your social media presence so that you can grow your fan base with a targeted audience that is most likely to participate and be interested in what you have to offer.

One way to create an incentive for fans is to provide a download of some sort for liking your page (see free welcome templates and additional ideas at The Social Networking Academy, through the banner above). Also, you can participate in "Like" Ladders, Silent Tagging and other exchanges through Facebook and LinkedIn to grow your fan base (although these exchanges are less likely to get you in front of your specific audience). 

Other strategies for generating Facebook fans are provided here:
- http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-page-strategy-2009-03
- http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/05/10-ways-engaging-facebook-page/
- http://thecustomercollective.com/inboundsales/48383/how-create-high-converting-facebook-fan-page

Good luck in building your Facebook Fan pages, and please also like ours here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/INKwhy/119526094815247

(Please note, we haven't followed all the strategies and suggestions for beefing up our own Facebook page, but we're working on it!)

In eighth grade, science teachers may have explained to their students that the world would end when the sun expanded to such a size that it would explode, destroying all the planets in its vicinity. Of course, more knowledgeable folks (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_will_our_sun_explode and http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080129174949AAJEYmH) have commented that the sun actually will not explode but will bulge out and essentially "melt" the earth... (although perhaps by then scientists may have discovered a way for living creatures to withstand the heat, or we will all have already annihilated each other through nuclear war or fallen to our demise through some other catastrophe).

In terms of "Judgment Day" -- there have been numerous predictions in the past that have not come true. Back in May, news channels focused on "May 21st" as the date for the end of the world (see http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0518/Judgment-Day-May-21-When-will-the-world-actually-end). Other failed predictions include October 22, 1844; 1806; December 21, 1954; 2000; October and November 1982 (http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0518/Judgment-Day-Five-failed-end-of-the-world-predictions/October-22-1844).   

Many have also been waiting for the world to end in 2012 (see: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5301284&page=1) -- as attributed to Nostradamus (http://www.december2012endofworld.com/nostradamus-2012). We still have over a year to observe whether this will happen, or whether something will happen sooner or later. At this point, that's the best answer we can offer -- the world will end... sooner or later.

One formula for calculating the air speed velocity of birds is here: http://style.org/unladenswallow (which estimates that the airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow is 10 meters per second).

Note that sparrows are different from swallows and, according to WikiAnswers, swallows are on average 20 g heavier then sparrows (weight varies depending on species). Also according to WikiAnswers (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_fast_can_a_sparrow_fly), a sparrow can fly between 16 and 19 MPH (25-30 Km/h). So swallows generally are faster than sparrows.

A vicious cycle like this is perpetuated by traps such as the Prisoner's Dilemma and No-Win Situations. Ideally, resources could be allocated in a way for everyone to come out a winner. However, given the current global political climate and lessons learned from history, humanity is a long way from not wasting resources. Let's just chalk it up to more lessons to be learned...