The internet is a weapon to fight oppression which is arguably more powerful than guns with it’s ability to bring together the masses. The recent events in Egypt are proof of that. And now the United States is officially recognizing and pledging to aid internet freedom fighters in their fights against worldwide repressive governments. In a speech at George Washington University yesterday Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressed a venture capital like funding approach to activists trying to fight against repressive countries internet censorship. Pledging $25 million of US support. She stated “I urge countries everywhere instead to join us in the bet we have made, a bet that an open Internet will lead to stronger, more prosperous countries. At its core, it’s an extension of the bet that the United States has been making for more than 200 years, that open societies give rise to the most lasting progress, that the rule of law is the firmest foundation for justice and peace, and that innovation thrives where ideas of all kinds are aired and explored.” This is the type of the US foreign policy that generation Y can really wrap their heads around and support and there still might be hope for Hilary not being a psycho hose beast after all.

We haven’t made fun of hipsters in a while here so I guess it’s about that time again. Here is a really popular internet meme, the hipster cat. If you are not familiar pretty much it is just a cat dressed up as a hipster with hilarious hipster sayings attached, pretty straight forward. Alright well good talk, enjoy the hipster cats, see you out there.

A bunch more of Hipster Cat below
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Facebook profiles are like belly buttons: Everybody’s got one. 1 out of ever 13 humans and three out of four Americans is on Facebook, and one out of 26 signs into Facebook on a daily basis. We could rattle off stats like that until the cows come home, but instead, we’d like to show you this fascinating infographic from SocialHype and OnlineSchools.org. Plain and simple you are probably obsessed, as long as you don’t play farmville or poke people on the reg. then you are just like everyone else, but once you start doing shit like that then you need to reevaluate your life.

More incredible information on facebook users below
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The internet is still a baby where it has only really been around for about 20 years. If the internet had been around since the old days I am sure there would have been a lot more scandals and controversy to celebrity tweeting and facebook posts, as well as everyone’s favorite porn site Redtube would have been a little different, and not for the better. Here is what your favorite websites would have looked like if they were running back in the old days.

More examples below
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Whether or not you believe that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should have released gov’t documents or not, you still can’t deny the intrigue of someone’s ability to hack high security infrastructure.  Probably because all we know is click and browse and its so complicated it becomes mysterious and awesome.  Or there’s the most likely answer that you just saw the movie “Hackers” too many times and wished we were ZeroCool.  A new Swedish documentary “WikiRebels” is (4 parts on YouTube) covers Assange talking about the 1990s when he and other hackers had a backdoor into control of military internet for two years.   It also touches on ethical conflicts between Wikileaks leaders.  A WikiLeaks bio piece on Assange says ““As a teenager he became Australia’s most famous ethical computer hacker. After referrals from the United States government his phone was tapped in 1991, and he spent six years in court. He hacked thousand of systems, including the Pentagon and the U.S. military Security Coordination Center.”  Hack the Planet!  Just try not to get anyone killed please.

Stealing your neighbors internet connection is as American as apple pie. When I was in college living in the city I had internet access 24/7 thanks to all the idiots in my area that wouldn’t lock their internet connection giving me free access. There is one server I would always connect to which was called “mormon prostitute” true story. Here are 10 awesome wifi network names.

More network names below
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We don’t think about it often, but ever wonder how everyone in the world stays so well connected via internet. It’s more the under water cables that connect us than satellites according to the creators of this map and may be more of an amazing feat. Interesting to check out regardless. Click the image twice to see the largest version.

With all the heat coming down on Facebook about user privacy, Mark Zuckerberg finally stepped to the plate and rolled out a new privacy policy yesterday which gives users some much needed control of their own Facebook info.  There will now be a single privacy page where all your privacy can managed, instead of having to navigate through multiple pages and checking a bunch of different check boxes.  Wired.com “More and more people want to share information,” Zuckerberg said. “As long as they have controls over that, that is where the world is going. ”  The sharing of our info makes our lives a lot easier in many cases and more control is necessary, but people still have no idea how targeted they really are online.  Advertisers are always tracking you,  your demographic and all your movement and content.  Props to Facebook for actually hearing the call of their users wanting privacy from each other and acting.  But whats not mentioned is that all facebook’s advertisers will still know your address, your likes and dislikes, fan-clubs and status updates.  I have no beef with that though, what’s free to us has to make money somewhere.  Now if there was only an option to eliminate having to see stupid status updates involving dumb facebook apps like farmville.

New All in One Privacy Page:

diaspora /dī-ˈas-p(ə-)rə, dē-/
origin: Greek, διασπορά – “a scattering [of seeds]”
1. the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network

4 NYU Students believe in it and have raised 115k in funds to build a social network based on it.  Since Facebook recently changed it’s privacy policy putting more of your info out there, these guys are being looked to as hero’s and the next generation.  They haven’t even created anything yet, but have received a bundle of support for the idea.

Besides the info you include about yourself that can be made public, I am huge supporter of something like this, because being an internet marketer, I don’t believe the average person knows how much their info is hoared out to advertisers online.  Ever notice how the ads that pop up in your free email account or on facebook revolve around your interests, age, location, and even keywords in your emails or status updates.   It’s because every bit of info you have online is targeted and your movements through this world of advertising are always tracked.  The openness of the internet may be coming to a crossroads and the idea of my internet social presence being entirely controlled by me is sounding better and better.  Check this idea out. Video Below.
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