TechNewsReview doesn’t know how seriously to take these stories, but a Mr. Cesidio Tallini is staking claim to proclaim the sovereign nation of Independent Long Island. And with this proposed proclamation is going to be a claim for the TLD .ILI.No less an august journal than The New York Times is the source of this story. The Times begins its story with, “Last month, a 45-year-old bachelor living in his parents’ house here with plenty of online dreams (and no steady offline employment), posted a news release on his Web site announcing, “A New Country Is Born.”The story goes on to say, “The bottom of the release listed the source of the information as the ‘governor of Independent Long Island.'””That would-be governor would be the bachelor himself, Cesidio Tallini, who proposes that geographic Long Island — comprising Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau and Suffolk Counties — should secede from the United States and form the sovereign nation of Independent Long Island.”‘Long Island’s ridiculously high home prices and property taxes are driving away all our young people, which is a shame because we have the population and the wealth to be a self-sustaining sovereignty, which would streamline government and lower taxes,’ he said.”Anyway, this “has designed a national flag: a depiction of Long Island with its fishtail-like East End split into two forks, surrounded by four stars for the two counties and two boroughs. He uses the logo on merchandise he sells from his Web site (www.ilination.com), on banners and mugs and T-shirts. And he has even formulated his own currency, calendar and religion.”To date he has no known support, not of one politician or any single individual.But being the age we live in, Mr. Tallini has, says the New York Times, procured the TLD .ILI, but they obviously have this slightly wrong.Apparently “Mr. Tallini says high-level national intelligence officials oppose his plans and are closely monitoring him. What else, he asks, could explain the recent unexplained periodic cutoffs in his telephone service and broadband connections?” I’d suggest they might have better things to do!Anyway, if you would like more on this story, check out the now everything-is-free The New York Times website at nytimes.com/2007/09/22/nyregion/22secede.html