1. YouTube Feather (beta)

The "Feather" project is intended to serve YouTube video watch pages with the lowest latency possible. So basically when you goto YouTube and select a video, it will load the page with minimum content. There will be only the search bar and the video. No ads, no suggested videos, no comments.

2. SmartVideo for YouTube

Have you noticed that when you pause a video on YouTube it also pauses loading the video. This can be pretty annoying if you have slow  internet and you are trying to let the video buffer before start playing the video so it doesnt stop half way. SmartVideo for YouTube is an add-on you can install to your chrome or firefox so it makes sure the video stays buffering even while the video is paused. It has some other handy features like setting up a preferred video quality, player size etc too.
  

The scientist believes that use of the internet – and computer games – could ‘rewire’ the brain, causing neurons to establish new connections and pathways. “Rewiring itself is something that the brain does naturally all the time,” the professor said, “but the phrase ‘rewiring the brain’ sounds really dramatic and chilling, so I like to use it to make it seem like I’m talking about a profound and unnatural change, even though it isn’t.”…

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have left a generation of young adults vulnerable to degeneration of the brain, we can exclusively reveal for about the fifth time. Symptoms include self-obsession, short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback, according to a ‘top scientist’ with no record of published research on the issue…

from guardian

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What does it say about the American and Japanese cultures that the spam I get from English-speaking sources* is overwhelmingly about phallus enlargement, while in the Japanese language case it's almost always either about hooking up with other men's wives or finding sex-starved schoolgirls? Does it mean American men are obsessed with the size of their organs while Japanese men want what they aren't supposed to have? I have the feeling that there are weighty socio-cultural issues to be explored here ...

*Like it or not, 99.9% of English-language spammers are ultimately American.

from foreigndispatches. and i couldnt agree more

"The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial."- nytimes.com

Social Media 2011 - updated version
An animated video about the rapid growth of social media and it's impact on the world.

Have you heard? The US government is developing virtual ID cards for Internet users -- and they could pose a severe threat to our privacy!

The proposal is called the "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” and the draft indicates that we'd be forced to use them for any online transactions with the government, and for online interactions with businesses that choose to use them.

If the system is fully implemented you'll have one centralized online ID, making it even easier to track your online activity: Officials need to make sure any proposal maintains Americans' rights to privacy and anonymity.

Click an image to enlarge it