A great article on the current and future status of social networking and interactive entertainment in China.

"How Technology Has Changed Education"

Mickey Mouse in the Middle East? A Disney-affiliated investment firm signed on to help develop a 20-acre entertainment complex in Haifa, Israel. Plans include a small amusement park, a multiplex theatre, and a shopping mall.

An interesting article on how the video game industry is leading the next productivity revolution, from Silicon Valley to China.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces that Brazil, Russia, India and China will invite South Africa to join BRIC, the world emerging economies group.

"Good news for good teachers: It turns out, the old drill-and-kill method is not only boring, but -- neurologically speaking -- pretty useless. Relevant, meaningful activities that both engage students emotionally and connect with what they already know are what help build neural connections and long-term memory storage (not to mention compelling classrooms). "

"Japan's anti-monopoly watchdog gave the official go-ahead on Thursday to a search-engine alliance between Yahoo Japan Corp and Google Inc that had been questioned by competitors."

"Yahoo just unveiled major redesigns and functionality changes for Arabic-language portal Yahoo! Maktoob that will funnel traffic away from yahoo.com. "

Which country would you guess is most addicted to Twitter? Would it surprise you to learn the answer is... Indonesia? The microblogging nation is also the world's fourth largest user of Facebook. Sara Sidner looks at how its people use social networks to rally support for social and political causes.

"Facebook has received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the trademark on the word "face" when used in the context of online chat rooms or bulletin boards."

"Why did Google get away with slapped wrists and no fine for their data harvesting in the U.K.? "

Is Amazon planning to apply crowdsourcing concepts to the movie business?

" The phenomenal popularity of Orkut, which made terms like 'social networking' part of common lingo, is well documented. However, in May this year, Facebook beat Orkut as the top social networking destination in India. Mumbai-based agency Komli Media's Vizisense, which tracks web audience measurement in India, has now come out with some answers to how Zuckerberg's creation triumphed over the Google-owned Orkut."

"Which metric more fully captures Lady Gaga's global superstardom: the 15 million albums she's sold to date, or the one billion views she reached this week on YouTube? "

Oakley enters the 3-D business with 3-D technology special edition Tron-themed glasses to be retailed worldwide. The company is developing high-quality, passive 3-D glasses that work in theaters, with 3-D video games, and with any passive 3-D TV set of any brand.

Fnac is to France what Barnes & Noble is to America. France's (and Europe's) largest cultural and electronic retail chain giant has just launched the "Fnacbook", priced at only 119 Euros, a much lower cost than the average 650 Euros needed to buy an iPad in France. The Fnacbook connects to the Fnac's online brand and its 80 thousand titles.

Twiducate is a free platform for creating your own micro social network in a Twitter-like format. Twiducate allows you to create a private network for posting assignments and messages to your students or other people you invite into your network.

A new report from network security firm Arbor Networks says that all Google sites together now account for 6.4 percent of all Internet traffic. That sets a record and marks a full percentage point increase since the beginning of the year.

Mapeas is a new service for geographically exploring the news on sports, entertainment, business, science, and general news stories by clicking on a world map. Stories are provided by ABC, NBC, Fox, the Associated Press, and AFP.