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Amazon Japan is offering a simple yet stylish analog alarm clock for a limited time only. The clock comes in black or orange, sports the Amazon Japan website URL on its face, and wakes up loyal Amazon customers with an electronic beeping chime and complementary flashing lights.

The number of followers who had joined "Is Anyone Up" might not have been in the hundreds of millions like some of the more popular social networks, but it sure was capitalizing on the profiles that were registered on Facebook and Twitter, nonetheless. Entrepreneur Hunter Moore had taken Chatroulette to a whole 'nother level to what some were defining as "revenge" or "identity" porn.

When a neighborhood watch group escalates from its watchdog origins to outright vigilantism, is nothing to be done to protect the lives innocent citizens? So is the question asked by the Trayvon Martin camp. However, in their fervor to prove their point, they have assumed the same extreme behavior online as that which they are condemning on the streets.

Hotel commerce, branding, online reputation management, guest feedback, reviews, and customer satisfaction are no longer disconnected or disjunctive focus areas for hoteliers. Today, social media's tetra-like tentacles reaches out to all of these touch points, and the more forward-thinking hoteliers are embracing 21st century technology to get the job done comprehensively, from decision-making to check-out.

With record-breaking pageviews and generating more traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined, social media's latest shiny thing has ridden into our zeitgeist quicker than Superman's speeding bullet. Pinterest's ability to scale to 7.2 million visitors in the U.S. alone, with other reports stating its tallied 11 million total visits during one week in December sounds like Facebook's early ascendancy during its 2004 debut.

The Flip.to social media marketing platform just launched direct integration with the Hotel Concept's RezExchange channel management and distribution system for hotels. The service is a new means for the hospitality industry to convert guests and website visitors into engaged advocates while extending a brand's reach exponentially and finally providing hotels with a means to push past basic social media engagement, to a definable ROI.

With a movie project that has virtually taken years to "wrap," Twittamentary, is a film about communities that is now available for communities around the world. Having received numerous request from folks and organizations across the globe, the film's producer is thrilled to announce an "open call" for community screenings to take place between February 1 and May 1, 2012. That's right, if you have a suitable venue and meet the screening requirements, all you need is 20 of your closest friends or fans to put on a show - for free!

Whenever a new movement consumes the hearts and minds of a large percentage of the populace, its time to take stock in what really moves these folks to act? The zeitgeist that emanated from Facebook and Occupy Wall Street couldn't be any more different from each other, yet there is an undercurrent that threads the two together. Both attract those that have an overwhelming desire to band together within loosely-knit organizations that welcome all.

Toward the end of 2011, the American Censorship Org took action against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a U.S. bill racing through Congress that threatens "prosperity, online security and freedom of expression." On January 18, thousands of websites like Wikipedia have pledged to go dark online in protest. To show its solidarity, Google has blocked out their iconic logo on their search engine.

The buzz surrounding social media marketing hasn’t gone unnoticed by the hospitality industry and many hotel brands seek to make inroads by engaging more effectively with leading social networks.

Well if you've been following the partisan rhetoric emanating from the Belt Way, you might not think that the government of "We The People" is going to fare too well going into a contentious election year. However, if you're one of the 99 Percenter contingency, things might be looking a little "rosier" for you . . . and they do mean that literally.

What's a little friendly competition amongst neighboring towns in New Jersey? Well this Christmas season, two councilmen and one mayor have decided to lighten up this year's holiday festivities with a house decoration competition in Jersey City, Newark and Roselle.

Where have all the protest songs gone? Are they still blowing in the wind, or have new ones surfaced to chronicle life's current strife? While it seems like only yesterday, it's actually been over 40 years since Americans felt angry and disenfranchised enough to assemble in solidarity and  protest against injustice and greed.

Awakened like a sleeping giant, the 99 Percenters were first motivated by the Arab Spring - but now have orchestrated a movement that has taken on a whole life of their own. Commencing with a make-shift tent city constructed overnight in downtown Manhattan four weeks ago, Occupy Wall Street has caught not only America's zeitgeist but one that is cyberventilating across the globe as well.

Flip.to is a new marketing platform that helps hotels turn their guests into advocates. After completing a successful beta, today the Flip.to team is announcing a new batch of results that would make any hotelier smile.

The not-so-dynamic duo who continually fall short in bringing down the one man who stood between them and a billion dollar social network are seeking alternate means for remuneration. That's right, the Winklevoss twins have taken to the TV airwaves to zing their arch nemesis Mark Zuckerberg in a Roll Global commercial for pistachios.

While hundreds of CRM metric systems have evolved over the years, guests have been inundated with hotel survey requests that are lengthy and antiquated. Recently, with the extensive research conducted by loyalty expert Fred Reichheld, it has been found that brands are best served when they distill the whole process down to one simple question: "Would you recommend this hotel to a friend?"

On September 17th, a protest organized by several activist group will take Wall Street by storm to protest opposition to the use of corporate money in politics. Groups such as Anonymous, Adbusters, US Day of Rage are collaborating their efforts to promote a peaceful protest to attract on upwards of 20,000 to turn downtown Manhattan into a campground.

While China is the country everyone wants to get a piece of these days - the two major Internet giants in the world - namely, Google and Facebook - face major hurdles with the government's insidious "firewall" and its strict censorship regulations.

While the blogoshere is cyberventilating once again about the imminent demise of Facebook (anybody remember the "We're Quitting Facebook Day" scheduled for May 31, 2010?), the ghost of Guy Fawkes has been evoked to stir the conspiracy pot. Five hundred years to the day, the Hacker activist group known as Anonymous is claiming they will coincide their destruction of Facebook with Fawkes attempt to blow up the House of Parliament on November 5, 1605.