Linkpile (via Delicious)

• YouTube: Placement Police: Cracking down on unauthorized (by YouTube) murketing: “Kevin Nalty, a marketing director at Merck & Co., who produces a series of sophomoric videos on YouTube under the moniker ‘nalts,’ recently received a slightly scary e-mail from YouTube about one of his videos containing brand messaging.” By the way, why is Merck posting “sophomoric” videos? Why does that make sense?
• Wasting Time: Priceless: I don’t disagree, but why is this a Web-specific issue? Same is true of watching TV or looking out the window, no?
• Depression Scares Are Hardly New: Argues that measures suggest three previous periods when there was more fear of a new depression than there is today: 1974/1975, 1978-1982, and 1990-1992. I find this genuinely surprising. In particular I don’t remember any talk of a new depression in 1990-1992 at all — bad economy, yes, but depression talk? That just doesn’t line up with what I can recall.
• Might become a ‘Super Fan’ of a popular movie franchise 4 the rest of my life.: HRO on fandom: “Sort of prefer ‘wasting time on the internet’ because we are all trying to get vulnerable and ’show the world who we are.’”
• Michelle Obama: Sneakerhead: Spotted rocking $540 kicks.