The movie Avatar is about a planet of people attacked by a much stronger force.

They have to battle back, these underdogs, to protect their land.

If you’re reading this, you come from another planet too.

The devastatingly nerdy world of Twitter.

Don’t fight it.

Don’t fight it.

Embrace your nerdy body.

Your world is under attack too.

Today, I will show you the enemy.  The people that you’ll see on Twitter pumping their tiny fingers and expelling tweets that could soon signal the end-times.

And after months, maybe a year, if Twitter dies, you’ll know why.

You’ll circle back to this post and laud me for being right.

Nice.

I’ve always wanted to be like, totally lauded.

Let’s begin now, with the 5 people who completely ruin Twitter for the rest of us.

1. The People Behind Those Horrible Trending Topics.

Right for the juggernaut.

I know you feel uneasy.  Because you’ve thought about this, too.

You’re frightened, scared.  Let’s unpack your thoughts.

Don’t madden them, TN, they’ll make a hurtful trending topic about your penis!

That would be better than the shit that’s out there.

You know you ugly when.

Really?

Wifey her if.

Really.

Rihanna’s forehead is bigger than.

OK, that’s funny.

The point is, the hijacking of Twitter’s trending topics by asinine shit will destroy the validity Twitter has a mainstream news and information source.

And if you don’t believe me, there’s no way you’d be my wifey.

2. The Twitter Spambot.

The Twitter spambot is a reincarnation of the the Friendster webcam chick.

It’s the same person, people.

When I was on Friendster, striking out with chicks, I remember my first friend request.

Alicia in a super tiny bikini.

I immediately started dating her in my mind.

I added her.  Messaged her.  Introduced myself.

Hi Alicia!  I’m 23.  I like puzzles and juice boxes.  Maybe we can like totally do each other?

I put my emoticons out there.

Days later, a response.

Ur CUTE!  Do you want to see steamy pictures of me?  Join my private chat room, and receive five free minutes of me on webcam.

Shattered.

And more Alicias arrived.  Thousands and thousands.  Flooding Friendster until we all fled, flailing our girl arms in the air.

And now we’re on Twitter.

Alicia knows.  She’s here with all her super hot friends.  Selling us webcam sessions, teeth whitening, affiliate marketing scams.

When the Nigerian bankers find out how to give us inheritances in 140 chars or less, we’re all fucked.

3. The Vapid Celebrity.

I like celebrities on Twitter.  I follow a lot of them.

But the ones I don’t follow still manage to get into my stream.

Ha!

My stream.

And more will arrive.  More of the vapid celebrities with nothing to say.

The ones with “armies” of fans.  They’ll flood us with hundreds of their devastating thoughts.

omg people. I keep loosing my iphone.  arrgh.

on the set of a new photoshoot!  don’t worry.  gonna take pics for you guys.

hey tweeps!  at a VIP party just ran into puffy. lmaoz.   big things!!

What are we supposed to do with that?

4. The There’s-No-Such-Thing-As-Too-Much-Information People.

For these people, Twitter is like a psychiatrist, a close friend, and an STD doctor all in one.

They share everything.

And as Twitter grows, more of these people arrive.

My bum itches you guys!

I’m smoking crack and shit!

No offense but Canadian people are gross.

Thanks, people.

Thanks for that.

5. The Social Media Douchebag.

Our biggest threat.

Before Twitter, they roamed the world as social outcasts.

Unloved and unwanted.

Like me right-now.

And then Twitter gave them a chance to fashion a new persona for themselves.  Where people would listen to them.  Respect them. Pay them for their thoughts.

Hilarious.

But the thin veil of celebrity that they’ve tried to create will soon fall.

And we’ll all totally see their pee-pees and wee-wees.

The pee-pee of fraud, the wee-wee of bullshit.

Let’s hope it isn’t too late.

–

There you have it.

The 5 people who will ruin Twitter.

I know what you’re thinking.

Well you can just not follow them.

I know that.  And I don’t.  But just like Alicia in her tiny bikini.

They multiply.

And once they outnumber us all, nothing can stop their super hot web cam sessions.

–

Follow my super hotness on Twitter here.

Question: Who else annoys you on Twitter that I left out?

There’s some good news and some bad news. First, the good news: sources tell Engadget that multitouch browsing will be added to the Motorola Droid in its next software update.
Multitouch was one of the most requested features on Android, at least until the Nexus One gained multitouch browsing last week.

The bad news: the update won’t add the ability to install live wallpapers, a coveted feature of Android 2.1 seen in the Nexus One.

The point of live wallpaper is essentially to let your homescreen behave like an application, making it animated and interactive. Live wallpapers have the same access to the platform functionality that apps do, giving your homescreen the ability to change dynamically and to bring relevant information to the background of your phone. There’s no word on when or even if the Droid might support live wallpaper, but it looks like it won’t be included in this upcoming update.

Other tidbits from the new build — based on Android 2.1 version 1 — include pre-installed Google Goggles experimental visual search, and versions of the news and weather widgets first included with the Nexus One.

The official word on the street from Motorola is that the new update will roll out this week, so it won’t be long now before Droid users finally get to enjoy the multitouch browsing experience their Nexus One counterparts have been privy to since last week.

Tags: android, android 2.1, droid, live wallpaper, Motorola, multitouch, verizon

In last week’s Faceoff Series we asked about music consumption models: Do Mashable readers prefer to own their entire music collections or do some of you gravitate toward subscription services?

One week later and the results are in: Ownership wins the day at a full 50% of the vote. Of all our past Faceoffs, though, this edition had one of the highest “tie” votes constituting people who really like both models. The music subscription model still came in second place behind ownership at 28% of the vote, but the “Tie: I like them both!” option was very close behind at 22%.

The results seem to indicate both a growing contingent of folks warming up to the idea of music subscription services, and the idea that there could be room in the market for both approaches to be sustainable business models. Which option got your vote in our poll, and why? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: music, polls, social media, subscription, web faceoff

Youth social networking researcher dana boyd has observed that many people presume the way they use social networks is the way everyone uses them. "I interviewed gay men who thought Friendster was a gay dating site because all they saw were other gay men," she says. "I interviewed teens who believed that everyone on MySpace was Christian because all of the profiles they saw contained biblical quotes. We all live in our own worlds with people who share our values and, with networked media, it's often hard to see beyond that."

Now picture our perspective leaving our own experiences, zooming out and up until we can see how all the different groups are interacting on a worldwide social network. That bird's-eye view could be both beautiful and horrible if the resolution was clear enough. That's what a Ramen-eating, ex-Apple engineer named Pete Warden is about to release to the public this week.

Sponsor

This Wednesday, Warden will make friend, fan page and name data from hundreds of millions of Facebook users available to the academic research community. It's a move that Facebook has to have seen coming, a move that many in the data-centric community have been calling on the company itself to do for years, and an event that's been complicated by Facebook's recent privacy policy changes, which have muddied the waters of right and wrong but rendered even more data available for outside analysis.

If what people call Web 2.0 was all about creating new technologies that made it easy for everyday people to publish their thoughts, social connections and activities, then the next stage of innovation online may be services like recommendations, self and group awareness, and other features made possible by software developers building on top of the huge mass of data that Web 2.0 made public. It's a very exciting future, and Warden is about to fire one of the earliest big shots in that direction.

Nerds in Space: Social Graph Analysis For Solving Large-Group Problems

Pete Warden studied Computer Vision in college in the UK, then got into game development. After moving to LA, he spent 6 years building graphics drivers for the original Playstation and the XBox. Then he started his own independent business, where thankfully he open-sourced much of his work (something he's still doing today).

When he found out that starting his own business wasn't going to work with his immigration status, he was very fortunate to have also caught Apple's eye with the software he had been releasing to the public. Apple bought his company in order to bring him on board. The proceeds of that small sale are now sustaining his next project after leaving the company.

After spending 5 years at Apple struggling to navigate the maze of people and connections and types of expertise in order to get the information he needed, Warden decided to go independent and build a company that solved exactly that kind of problem. "I can't think of a better big company to work for, but it was still a big company," he says. "It was hard to find the right people to talk to, whether for particular expertise or for contacts at external companies." And so Pete Warden left Apple to build a company that would use social graph analysis to solve problems like that. He called the company Mailana.

We've written here a number of times about Mailana's tool to analyze the social graph of any Twitter user. Enter the username of someone on Twitter and Mailana will show you which 20 other people they have exchanged the largest number of reciprocal public @ replies with. Find someone interesting or important? Mailana's Twitter analyzer will tell you who they most regularly interact with. See, for example, The Inner Circles of 10 Geek Rockstars on Twitter.

Pulling Down the Facebook Social Graph

Now Warden is about to unveil a much larger project along the same vein. For the past 6 months he's been crawling public profile pages on Facebook. He now has more than 215 million of them indexed and updated about once a month. When he began he was using webcrawling service 80legs but in time he had to build his own crawling infrastructure.

When I talked to him this afternoon, he had already begun uploading 100 GB of user data onto his server to make available for academic research starting on Wednesday. Warden says he's removed identifying profile URLs but kept names, locations, Fan page lists and partial friends lists. All those fields of data are just waiting to be analyzed and cross referenced. That's one very rich resource.

Yesterday Warden posted some of his own initial observations from the data on his personal blog. Those included:

• God is in almost every state in the Southern US the #1 most popular Fan page among Facebook users. Among people in the LA, San Francisco and Nevada regions? "God hardly makes an appearance on the fan pages, but sports aren't that popular either," Warden writes. "Michael Jackson is a particular favorite, and San Francisco puts Barack Obama in the top spot." In the Oregon and Idaho region? Starbucks is #1.
• In the Mormon-influenced areas of Utah and Eastern Idaho, the most popular Fan pages are The Book of Mormon, Glen Beck and the vampire book Twilight, which was authored by a Mormon.
• The bulk of Warden's posted analysis yesterday was about location networks. People in the Western US tend to have Facebook friends all over the country, people in the Southern US tend to mostly be friends with people who have remained in the same area.

Taking a Deeper Look

These observations are interesting, but they are only the beginning of what's possible. Name, location, friends and interests are great data points to analyze. Warden has written a program that will estimate gender as well, based on names. All these data points can be cross-referenced with outside data, too. Members of Facebook's own staff did this kind of analysis when they compared last names on the site to US census data about the likelihood of people with particular last names reporting particular racial backgrounds in order to estimate the changes in Facebook's racial composition over time.

"I'm mostly thinking 'What do I try first?'," Warden says. "There's so many interesting ways to slice the data - especially as I'm starting to get changes over time. I'm also trying to map out political networks in aggregate; how polarized the fans of particular politicians are - so how likely a Sarah Palin fan is to have any friends who are fans of Obama, and how that varies with location too. One of my favorite results is that Texans are more likely to be fans of the Dallas Cowboys than God."

Warden says he hasn't talked to anyone from Facebook since he started crawling the site, but he did get an email from someone on the security team asking him to take down instructions he'd posted exposing a security hole that made harvesting peoples' email addresses easy. So the company is paying attention. "I'd love to see them put me out of business by putting decent data out there," Warden says. He says his Amazon Web Services bill was over $5k last month.

Why is he indexing all this content and why is he going to hand it over to the academic world later this week? "I am fascinated by how we can build tools to understand our world and connect people based on all the data we're just littering the internet with," Warden says.

"Nobody thinks about how much valuable information they're generating just by friending people and fanning pages. It's like we're constantly voting in a hundred different ways every day. And I'm starry-eyed believer that we'll be able to change the world for the better using that neglected information. It's like an x-ray for the whole country - we can see all sorts of hidden details of who we're friends with, where we live, what we like."

For a great example of the kind of social impact that data analysis can make, Warden points to some of the fascinating ways that GIS data is illuminating the intersection of race and public services. Data has shed light on social injustices for decades and measurable information about the interactions of hundreds of millions of people every day on Facebook offers opportunities to discover both good and bad news about the contemporary human condition.

Warden says he's not yet been able to interest any investors in his ideas for businesses based on this data, so his girlfriend Liz Baumann, a former insurance actuary, stepped in to help and is now running much of the crawling. He says he's now focused on "working on ways of presenting all this information in a form that answers questions for people willing to pay." His first experiment along those lines is the very interesting FanPageAnalytics.com.

What does Pete Warden hope for from this week's public release of all this Facebook data? "Hopefully I'll get to see a bunch of interesting [academic research] papers come out of it, worst case. And I'd like to be the guy people turn to when they need stuff like this."

Already well-respected among a fringe group of bleeding-edge geeks, we hope that Warden's work on social graph analysis will end up impacting a far larger number of people than may ever know his name.

Discuss

The 2010 Technology Entertainment Design conference will be kicking off tomorrow in Long Beach, California, bringing the leading minds of many fields together to talk shop about innovation, change, and what the future holds.

As social media has become a game changer for industries across the board, you can bet the experts at this year’s TED conference will have their sights set on peeling back the hype and getting at the core of what social technology has in store for this year and beyond.

Perhaps the best part of the TED conferences is that videos of the talks are archived and free to view right on the organization’s website. Given the wealth of insight we’re sure to see tomorrow, we thought we’d whet your appetite by highlighting a few recent and exceptional talks from TED’s past, with a focus on social media.

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1. Alexis Ohanian: How To Make a Splash in Social Media

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We’ll start things off with a real-life social media parable about how the biggest and most effective forces on the web usually take shape by accident. Alexis Ohanian of Reddit.com tells the quick and hilarious story of how the social web provided some unexpected help to Greenpeace in halting the Japanese whaling industry. Internet marketers take note: The meme is all powerful, and it cannot be controlled.

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2. Clay Shirky: How Social Media Can Make History

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In this talk, consultant, professor and author Clay Shirky discusses the unprecedented immediacy of real-time citizen journalism made possible by social media and the nearly ubiquitous access to mobile web technologies. From the election crisis in Iran to the massive earthquake that shook China in May of 2008, Shirky discusses how media is made on the ground, as-it-happens, via the social web.

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3. Evan Williams: Listening to Twitter Users

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With a couple of anecdotes building the ultimate social media case study, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams discusses how a little side project called Twitter became a game-changing phenomenon with the help and input of the very users who made the service a success. From innovative marketing uses to core functionality, Williams provides the evidence for what we knew all along: Users know best.

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4. Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet Enables Intimacy

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As social media changes our social lives, speculation has abounded for years on how the web may be disconnecting us from intimate interactions in favor of meaningless quests to rack up followers and “friends.” Not so, says Stefana Broadbent, who explains that social networks function the same way online as they do in real life. While we may have lots of friends, we only really communicate regularly and meaningfully with a handful of them, and social technologies like e-mail, texting, and tweeting allow us to do so more often across time and space.

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5. Seth Godin: The Tribes We Lead

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From professional sports mascots to balloon animal makers, some communities are so extremely niche that they could only properly thrive on the Internet. So argues blogger and author Seth Godin, who believes that our revolutionary new connectedness has brought human culture back to its roots, and that tribes (groups of people mobilized around a shared interest) are the present and future of all web content.

What are your favorite TED talks about social media? Which did we miss? Let us know in the comments.

Tags: future, List, Lists, social media, social networks, technology, TED, TED Talks, twitter, video

Nella Fantasia (translated from Italian)

In my fantasy I see a just world,
Where everyone lives in peace and honesty.
I dream of souls that are always free
Like the clouds that float
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.

In my fantasy I see a bright world,
Where each night there is less darkness.
I dream of spirits that are always free,
Like the clouds that float.

In my fantasy exists a warm wind,
That blows into the city, like a friend.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like the clouds that float
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul


Cordelia: Dorothy Cordelia, my dear loving grandma, who taught me more about life than she could have ever known.


This is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to write in my entire life. The hardest and yet the most beautiful. As I even just begin to type here, late, in the dark in my room alone with my girls sleeping next to me, their little faces barely visible from the glow of the the same candles that flickered in a very special room one week ago, my heart starts aching thinking of where I was at exactly this moment last week.

A week. How can it already have been a week? I've thought a million times what I'm going to write here and how I'm going to begin and what order I'll put it in and I think I've been so afraid to come back here...so afraid of not doing justice this very precious night...of leaving something out...of attaching simple words to an event that is so far from simple, it might just not be possible. But I need to get it out. I don't know how it's going to come or if it will make sense, but I'm just going to write. And when I get stuck, I will pick up this tiny blessed life beside me and hold her tight. I will breathe her in and remember...

Oh, here it goes.
The story of our daughter's birth.

This is Nella's Story.

I turned 31 on December 29...exactly a month ago. We went to dinner with friends the evening before and as we left, we saw the new bookstore nearby welcomingly lit up. I had told Brett I didn't need anything this year for my birthday as Christmas had just passed, but at the sight of the bookstore, I remembered a book I had read about from another photographer. As we walked by, I told Brett I changed my mind. I wanted a book, and I wanted it...tonight. So we ventured in, and he played with Lainey downstairs while I wandered up in the self-help section, thumbing through titles until I landed on the only copy of the book...A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.

Later at home, we put Lainey to bed and I drew a bath and climbed in with my big pregnant belly, my new book and a highlighter. And I read. And read. And read. Underlining, highlighting, starring paragraphs and quotes and words that moved me hard. I warmed the water about a trillion times and pruned my skin to raisins, but I could not stop reading. It turned into a three hour bath followed by another hour or so of reading in my bed. By the end of the book, I was inspired. Inspired to write a new story for our life...inspired to face challenges and leave my comfort zone and go through hard things because that is what turns the screenplays of our lives from boring to Oscar-worthy. And, to be honest, in my mind, our uncomfortable challenge was the changes in our life with Brett's job and having him away from home. Little did I know.

Fast forward.

Last Thursday, Brett & I teased all day that we were so ready for this baby, she had to either come Thursday or Friday. Every time he called me from work, he told me I should be out jogging. I didn't jog, but I did walk like crazy, trailing Lainey through the streets of our neighborhood in a stroller, thinking, "These might be the last moments with my only daughter alone." And Thursday night, the pains started coming...nothing horribly uncomfortable but some significant cramps that were semi-regular and popped up several times through the night. By morning, I had several that were 15-20 minutes apart, and my doctor, convinced I would go fast once I was in full swing, suggested I go to the hospital within a few hours. I remember getting off the phone and it hit me. Today was going to be the day. It was surreal. I texted my friends. Called my family. And began the last steps in the ever long process of saying goodbye to my 'only child.' She wanted her face painted like a kitty and, although I was excited to pack up and head to the hospital, I savored every brush stroke of those last moments with my big girl.

I called my friend, Katie, in Fort Lauderdale. I met Katie the night Lainey was born as she was the delivery nurse...and we have since been forever friends. She promised me she wanted to be present for all my babies' births, so she high-tailed it over I-75 after my call to get there in time.

It was strange. It seemed so real and yet I had dreamed of this moment for so long, it seemed a bit like a dream as well. It all just hit me...we had waited for this. Wanting a second child. Losing a pregnancy. Getting pregnant. The horrible night I thought it was all ending and the trip to the E.R. where we saw that little heartbeat. Waiting and preparing and finally, these last weeks, having everything just...perfect. The birth music ready to go, the blankets I had made packed and ready, the coming home outfit, the big sister crown for Lainey, the nightgown I had bought just for the occasion...what I would wear holding my daughter the first night I rocked her to sleep. Even the favors I hand-designed and tied every ribbon on were lined and stacked in a box, ready to pass out the moment the room flooded with visitors. My heart could hardly hold the excitement, and I will never ever forget what it feels like to long for your baby being handed in your arms the last few days of your pregnancy...it's so real, you can touch it.



We said goodbye to Lainey as we left her with Grandma and headed to the hospital where I was quickly instructed to drop trou and gown up. I slipped the white ruffled skirt and black shirt I wore into a plastic belongings bag. Days later, just the sight of these clothes--the ones I wore during my excitement and happiness...during those last 'happy' moments before my life was changed--would bring pain. I think Heidi finally hid the bag because it made me cry every time.

The early stages of labor were perfectly beautiful. Nothing hurt that bad, I had the anticipation of this eutopian experience ahead of me, Brett was chill, and my girlfriends started trickling in the room. We actually played a game...the "if you could..." cards I had packed in my bag for this very purpose. I had it perfectly planned, and it was going just as I had imagined...but better.

By 2:00, my water had been broken and my contractions were in full force. The room was full of excitement and laughter. I chatted with my girlfriends until a contraction came on where I shifted gears, "ow-ow-ow-ow-ow'd" my way through it (and cursed), and came out of it as fast as I went in, picking up the conversation where we left off. I checked to make sure Brett was okay. Several of my girlfriends were headed out for a birthday party but, with news of my status, they all huddled into the room, dressed to the nines, before their night out to check on me. I liked the commotion...I loved the anticipation. I loved the feeling of people waiting anxiously for our baby. It felt special. ...and we were so ready.



Two hours went by and I was off the wall in pain, begging for anesthesia to get in with an epidural. They were tied up, and so I cursed them too. Little did I know, I was a 9. This is where things begin to get hazy. It all just happened so fast. I remember anesthesia walking in to give me an epidural, Brett getting uneasy, girlfriends talking me through it, my pediatrician stopping in to say 'hi' during her rounds, and my obstetrician walking in and gowning up. This was it. With Lainey, it took forever and here I was, just hours after walking in this place, and they were going to tell me to push. They were going to tell me 'just one more' and then suddenly my life was going to change.

I couldn't grasp it even then. It was all just happening so fast and I wanted to savor it. I looked around the room and tried to take it in...the candles, the music, the lavender oil I brought that wafted through the room and calmed the tension. And then I remember just speaking to myself. You are about to meet your daughter. You are about to be changed for good.

At this moment, I heard the sounds of our birth song begin to fill the room...When You Love Someone.

And I began to cry.

My husband, my friends, my dad, my nurses...all of them smiling...cameras flashing...

One more push.

Oh, this is so hard...

I pushed. I pushed and watched as the tiniest little body came out of me, arms flailing, lungs wailing...and then, they put her in my arms.

...and I knew.

I knew the minute I saw her that she had Down Syndrome and nobody else did. I held her and cried. Cried and panned the room to meet eyes with anyone that would tell me she didn't have it. I held her and looked at her like she wasn't my baby and tried to take it in. And all I can remember of these moments is her face. I will never forget my daughter in my arms, opening her eyes over and over...she locked eyes with mine and stared...bore holes into my soul.

Love me. Love me. I'm not what you expected, but oh, please love me.

That was the most defining moment of my life. That was the beginning of my story.

I don't remember a lot here. My friends have filled me in, but I feel like I was in a black hole. I know I held her. I know I kissed her. I know I begged every power in the world that this wasn't happening...that she was normal, but I knew in my soul exactly what this was.

She was scooped off my chest and taken to the warming bed where nurses nervously smiled as they checked her over. I wanted someone to tell me what was going on...I kept asking if she was okay, and they told me she was fine. She was crying and pink and just perfectly healthy. I wanted to say the words, but couldn't. So, I asked why her nose was smooshed...why she looked funny. And because she came out posterior and so quickly, many people in the room honestly thought she'd look a little different in an hour or so. But I knew. I cried and cried while everyone smiled and took pictures of her, like nothing was wrong. I kept crying and asking, "Is there something you aren't telling me?" ...and they just kept smiling.

At this point, I have believed until recently that the pediatrician came in right away and told me the news. But because I was so confused and emotional and haven't slept much in a week, I am told it wasn't right away. The nurses apparently called my pediatrician in for 'D.S. suspicions.' And during this hour, I was handed back my daughter as if everything was okay.

When I think about this time later, I have cried and cried wondering what I did. Did she feel love? Did I kiss her? Did I hold her and tell her 'happy birthday' and smother her with happy tears? My friends in the room smile when I ask this and promise me I did. They said I couldn't stop kissing her. And while I held her, the room went on. Someone popped champagne and poured glasses and a toast was raised..."To Nella!" while I sat, confused, trying to take it in.

...and I am so very blessed my beautiful photographer friends, Laura and Heidi, were there to capture every single moment. They never stopped shooting...there are over 2000 images from the delivery and they have helped me relive the beauty. This photo is so beautiful to me...because it speaks with emotion. This is how I felt while everyone carried on for me.

I remember feeling....nothing. As if I literally left my body for a bit.

But they said I kissed her. They said I loved her. They said I was a mama.

I remember my pediatrician suddenly walking in and my heart sank a bit...I knew. "Why is she here?" I asked. And they told me she was just checking the baby out. Which she did. And then the room grew quiet and everyone was asked to leave. I started shaking. I knew it was coming. The tears. The twisting in my stomach that they were about to rock my world.

Brett stood behind me, stroking my hair and my nurse friends, Dot and Katie, stayed on either side of the bed. And it happened.

My pediatrician snuggled Nella up in a blanket and handed her to me...and she knelt down next to my bed so that she could look up at me...not down. She smiled so warmly and held my hand so tight. And she never took her eyes off mine. We had been through a lot together with Lainey's jaundice and I have spent many tearful conversations with her over the course of these two and a half years. She is an amazing pediatrician. But at this moment, she became more than that. She was our friend as she beautifully shared the news.

I need to tell you something.

...and I cried hard... "I know what you're going to say."

She smiled again and squeezed my hand a little tighter.

The first thing I'm going to tell you is that your daughter is beautiful and perfect.

...and I cried harder.

...but there are some features that lead me to believe she may have Down Syndrome.

Finally, someone said it.

I felt hot tears stream down and fall on my baby's face. My beautiful, perfect daughter. I was scared to look up at Brett, so I didn't. I just kissed her.

And then, Dr. Foley added...

...but, Kelle....she is beautiful. and perfect.

I asked for my dad to be let back in the room. And when he walked in, I cried again. They think she has Down Syndrome.

And he smiled as his eyes welled up with tears and he said, "That's okay. We love her." He scooped her up and I asked him to say a prayer. And there, in the delivery room where moments earlier she entered the world, we huddled around my bed...Brett still stroking my hair, Katie crying on one side, Dot on the other and Dr. Foley kneeled down beside my bed. He prayed and thanked God for giving us Nella and thanked him for the wonderful things he had planned for us. For our family. For Nella. Amen.

Dr. Foley hugged me and told me she got to hold her for her examination, but now she wanted to hold her just for some snuggles. And she did. I will always remember her compassion and know there is no one else that could do a better job sharing this challenging journey with us.

Katie asked if I wanted to nurse Nella, and I did. Another dreamy moment I had always anticipated and yet it felt so different this time. But I remember her latching right on and sucking away with no hesitation and looking at her, completely accepting me as her mama and snuggling in to the only one she's ever known and I felt so completley guilty that I didn't feel the same. I felt love, yes. I just kept envisioning this other baby...the one that I felt died the moment I realized it wasn't what I expected. But the nursing...oh, the nursing...how incredibly bonding it's been. The single most beautiful link I've had to falling in love with this blessed angel. And, look...I smiled. I don't remember smiling, but...I smiled.

The hallway was still filled with everyone who was waiting...and there are stories from our other wonderful friends and family of what happened behind those walls while they waited. All I know is that there was more love in that birthing center than the place could hold. As anxious eyes re-entered the room, I held my baby and told them all, crying, what we had been told. I knew there was a stream of friends ready to come and celebrate and I wanted them all to be told before they came in. I couldn't emotionally handle telling anyone and yet, strangely, I wanted people to know as soon as possible because I knew I needed the troops...I was falling, sliding, tunneling into a black hole and I needed as much love as possible to keep me up.

I just remember happiness. From everyone. All of the blessed souls in that room celebrated as if there was nothing but joy. Everyone knew...and there were a few puffy eyes, but mostly, it was pure happiness. More friends trickled in. More smiles. More toasts. And hugs with no words...hugs like I've never felt. Ones that spoke volumes...arms pulled tightly around my neck, lips pressed against my forehead and bodies that shook with sobs...sobs that told me they felt it too...they felt my pain and they wanted to take it away.

And Brett...well, he never left our girl's side. He was quiet through this all, and I'm not sure I'll ever know what he felt, but I know the daddy of our babies, and I know he knows nothing but to love them with all his heart. And he did from the very start.

As soon as the epidural wore off, I wanted my own nightgown. They were going to take me to our new room upstairs, and I was ready for a new start. Everyone carried our stuff up and waited for us. And then...the moment I always talk about...the moment they put you in that wheelchair and place the baby in your arms...and stroll you through the hallways to your room while onlookers smile and wish they were you. It's so strange, but I barely remember it.

I remember arriving to our room and being told Lainey was on her way. And I cried new tears...I hadn't even thought about how this would impact Lainey...what she would think...how her life would be different...how every beautiful vision I had of two sisters growing up together, grown-up phone calls, advice-giving, cooking together, shopping...everything would be different. Numbness started leaving my heart and sheer pain started settling in.

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry when Lainey gets here.

...and then I'll never forget her face...her cute outfit someone put her in...her eyes when she walked into that room, and the way she tried to hide her excitement with her shy smile.

I will never forget the day my girl became a big sister.

I will never forget the moment her little sister was placed in her arms. I watched in agony...in tears...in admiration as my little girl taught me how to love. She showed me what unconditional love looks like...what the absence of stereotypes feels like...she was...

...proud.

...and that was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I needed that.

As darkness set in that night and people started trickling out, I felt paranoid. So completely afraid because I knew with darkness...with the absence of everyone celebrating...the grief would come. I could feel it coming...and it hurt so, so, so very bad.

I wanted Lainey to go home with Brett. My heart was in a million pieces and wanted to be with her, and if I couldn't, I wanted him there. And so he left...with the little girl that completed my world, and I was left in the hospital with my two amazing, wonderful friends who will never ever know how special they are because of what they did for me that night. And they heard and saw things no one else will ever know, but I could have never made it through the night without them.

I think I cried for seven hours straight. It was gut-wrenching pain. I held Nella and I kissed her but I literally writhed in emotional pain on that bed in the dark with our candles and my friends by my side until the sun came up. I remember trying to sleep and then feeling it come on again...and I'd start shaking, and they'd both jump up and hug me from either side, Nella smooshed between the four of us. I begged for morning, even once mistaking a street light for sunlight and turning on the lights only to find it was 3 a.m. and I still had to make it through the night.

I can't explain that evening. And I suppose it's horrible to say you spent the first night your daughter was born in that state of agony, but I know it was necessary for me to move on to where I am today. And, knowing where I am today and how much I love this soul, how much I know she was meant for me and I am meant for her, knowing the crazy way our souls have intertwined and grown into each other, I can say all this now. It's hard, but it's real, and we all have feelings. We live them, we breathe them, we go through them and soon they dissolve into new feelings. So, here I go.

I cried out that I wanted to leave her and run away. I wanted to take Lainey and my perfect world and this perfect love I had built with my two-year old and our cupcake-baking days and our art projects and our beautiful bond and I wanted to run like hell. I wanted to be pregnant again. I wanted to be pregnant so bad. I wanted it to be the morning she was born again...when I was happy and excited and when I wore the white ruffled skirt and black shirt and put it in the belongings bag knowing joy was to come. I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back.

I moaned in pain and through it all, this little breath of heaven needed me. I cried while I nursed her. I cried while I held her. I cried while I pulled my nightgown off just so I could lie her body on my naked skin and pray that I felt a bond. I literally writhed in emotional pain for hours. And Heidi and Katie saw parts of me no one else have seen. My eyes were so swollen, Heidi said I looked like Rocky...like someone beat the hell out of my face and then cut little slits for eyes. It was that bad.

...and then morning came. ...and with it, hope.

There is so much more I could write...and I will...in chapters of our book.

My sister arrived the next day and revolutionized the place with her "I Have a Dream" speech. She told me I swallowed the blue pill. She told me I could never go back. But that I held a key to a door that no one else does. And, with tears in her eyes, she excitedly and passionately told me how lucky I was. She told me that I was chosen and that it is the most special thing in the world. She told me it was going to be just fine.

And she was so right.

The day after Nella was born, I fell in love hard. I knew she was mine. I knew we were destined to be together. I knew she was the baby all along that grew in my beautiful round tummy...the one I thought I almost lost...the one that I proudly rubbed when people told me how beautiful that belly was. It was. It was Nella all along.

A huge turning point for me was when my sister published my blog entry and an outpouring of love turned on. I had no idea. None. I had no idea you all were out there. And the words you all said...I believed them. And maybe I believed them all along, but to hear them when I needed them...you all empowered me. And my friends and family...oh, they'll never ever know how special they are to me. I've never felt so loved. You all truly gave me your hearts to borrow while mine was breaking. And you loved my baby. You loved her so good. You're not her mama and yet you washed her with tears when you held her. You kissed her. When she cried in the middle of the night and I needed some blessed sleep, you rigged up the jaundice lights against the nurse's orders, put your sunglasses on and took turns sleeping in a chair just to hold her.

You promised to be there on this journey and that alone means more than we can ever tell you. To be loved...is the greatest feeling one can ever feel.

Over the course of the next several days, things just became beautiful. I cried, yes...but they soon turned to tears of joy. I felt lucky. I felt happy. And I felt that I didn't want to run away with Lainey anymore...and if I did, I was taking my bunny with me.

When Lainey was in the hospital with jaundice, I remember hugging Brett and crying. I told him if God would make her better, I'd do anything. I'd live in a box, I'd sell everything we had, I'd be happy with nothing...just make her better. When she did get better, that feeling of raw gratitude was real, but it wasn't long before real life set in and I was complaning once again about the dirty grout in our cheap tile and how much I wanted wood floors.

I've often thought about how quickly that feeling left because we have a perfect, healthy little girl running around that erases all the painful memories of when we thought something might be seriously wrong.

I felt that feeling again last week. And as the pain has slowly disipated, I've realized...I will always be reminded. My Nella, my special little bunny, my beautiful perfect yet unique girl will be my constant reminder in life. That it's not about wood floors. No, life is about love and truly experiencing the beauty we are meant to know.

And so, we came home...happy. In fact, walking out of the hospital with our new baby girl and our proud new big girl, all crowned up, gripping the handle of the carseat with Daddy...it was just how I had imagined it.

Life moves on. And there have been lots of tears since. There will be. But, there is us. Our Family. We will embrace this beauty and make something of it. We will hold our precious gift and know that we are lucky. I feel lucky. I feel privileged. I feel there is a story so beautiful in store...and we get to live it. Wow.

The story has begun...

Page by Page...

(First "Well Baby" Visit...Dr. Foley, we love you.)

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love her. I wouldn't trade her for the world, and y'all can have that heart you let me borrow back. My broken heart has been healed...and if you held her, you'd know what I mean.

photographed by my dear friend, heidi

My Girls. I am complete.

There's been so much wonder I've wanted to share...but I knew I had to tell her story first. More to come...we've been taking lots of pictures and loving the beauty of life...and the funny...and the hectic...it's been crazy.

...but beautiful.

I did it. I told our bunny's story.

Nowadays, buzz around brands on the news, blogs, tweets and other social media that spreads through product launches, PR campaigns, earnings reports are as valuable as traditional ad campaigns. But buzz and social dialogue on the web is tough to quantify. General Sentiment has released a report that calculates the dollar value of the buzz, content, and conversation taking place online. General Sentiment’s technology evaluates the volume of mentions and sentiment value regarding a brand, company or person. The algorithm combines this data with website traffic and online news readership figures to determine the purchase-equivalent dollar value of the brand exposure across more than 30 million sources by gauging sentiment, frequency, and exposure of news mentions and social dialogue.

Google topped the rankings, with value of its “buzz” itemized at $669.6 million. Google’s social media reach costs $402 million, with its Twitter reach alone valued at $22.8 million. On the other hand, Apple came in fourth with total buzz reaching $293.2 million; social media buzz valued at $223.7 million; and Twitter reach valued at $5.6 million.

Here’s the list of the top 20 brands according the the value of their “Buzz”. Numbers are measured in thousands. The report is embedded below.

Company	News Media	Social Media	Twitter	Total
1	Google	$244,593	$402,279	$22,756	$669,629
2	Microsoft	$184,473	$452,006	$12,252	$648,732
3	Sony	$80,574	$207,907	$5,825	$294,308
4	Apple	$63,947	$223,657	$5,632	$293,237
5	Yahoo	$50,324	$236,087	$5,354	$291,766
6	Intel	$93,665	$189,880	$2,139	$285,685
7	Ford	$145,369	$39,082	$1,453	$185,905
8	IBM	$62,683	$85,957	$1,740	$150,381
9	Citigroup	$105,614	$24,961	$749	$131,326
10	HP	$46,249	$67,222	$2,423	$115,896
11	eBay	$50,179	$56,889	$4,672	$115,740
12	Oracle	$43,413	$70,838	$1,435	$115,686
13	McDonalds	$80,579	$32,842	$1,840	$115,263
14	Disney	$67,166	$35,811	$4,411	$107,390
15	Nokia	$28,560	$71,843	$2,369	$102,772
16	GE	$75,452	$24,536	$885	$100,864
17	Dell	$34,491	$43,990	$1,553	$80,035
18	American Express	$56,576	$19,803	$648	$77,028
19	Cisco	$41,579	$25,273	$735	$67,588
20	Blackberry	$22,706	$41,678	$2,038	$66,422

brand –

Update: Netflix contacted CNET and retracted its statement regarding plans for 1080p streaming, saying it has no plans for 1080p this year. However, the company stood its ground on the 5.1 surround sound plans, so you can still keep your ears open for that upgrade.

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Netflix plans to bump the video quality of its Watch Instantly streaming service up to 1080p on some devices, CNET claims. It will also roll out 5.1 surround sound support. Both upgrades will occur by next year.

Currently, Netflix Watch Instantly is available in 720p HD on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and some set-top boxes. 1080p is a much higher resolution, and the existing devices don’t stream Netflix content with 5.1 surround sound.

Netflix’s CEO has in the past predicted that streaming will overtake DVD-by-mail as the company’s main business. The library keeps on growing — for example, the Criterion Collection just contributed a ton of art-house and foreign films — and the number of devices you can watch the content on is growing too.

No time frame for the upgrade has been given, but the core technology that powers Netflix Watch Instantly — Microsoft Silverlight — got the capability last year. You can already watch 1080p streams on the Xbox 360 through the Zune Marketplace using Silverlight.

In some ways, streaming stole HD’s thunder. While the high definition digital video disc format Blu-ray was counting on viewers’ interest in quality, it turned out that more users have been interested in the convenience of watching content when and where they want. That has meant a sacrifice in resolution among other things, but 1080p Netflix is a first step towards closing the gap between quality and convenience.

The highly compressed 1080p streams that are possible over the United States’ broadband infrastructure are still not high enough on the quality scale to beat Blu-ray head-to-head, but they will still be better than most people are used to.

Tags: 1080p, netflix

Google is planning to unveil a broad new social product on Tuesday that will integrate with at least two existing Google products. Some details emerged earlier today on the Wall Street Journal (“a new feature that makes it easier and faster for users of Gmail to view media and status updates”), but our understanding is that the product goes well beyond a Gmail integration.

As I wrote last night, there is still a lot of room for improvement in online social services. Status updates, photo and video sharing, review and location based content are not only decentralized today, but are becoming overwhelmed with spam and other noise.

The Google event begins at 10 am. Tune in to TechCrunch for live coverage.

In what may be the ultimate miracle rescue, CNN is reporting that a man was pulled alive from the rubble in Port au Prince, Haiti today, four weeks after the earthquake devastated the city. It was not clear whether the man had been trapped since the initial quake.

CNN's Sanjay Gupta reported that the man, 28, suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but didn't seem to have sustained any serious injuries. Steve Ohnesorge, a reporter for WBTV, said he thought the man had some broken bones, but was in good condition considering.

More on Haiti Earthquake

The day has arrived. My Flirty Apron came today, and it’s not your Grandmother’s apron. It’s cute, flirty, and sassy, and it makes me feel super cute and sexy in the kitchen.

I wish I had a picture of my husband’s face when he walked into the kitchen and saw me wearing my new apron! His jaw dropped, and it was priceless. What man wouldn’t want to come home to his wife in the kitchen in a Flirty Apron. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. So get a Flirty Apron and get to cooking ladies!

And hey guys if you’re reading this, what an awesome Valentine’s Day gift for that special lady in your life! The Flirty Aprons start at just $24.95 and they ship the same day you order them! They come in all different patterns and colors, so order your Flirty Apron HERE!

Use coupon code ValentineApron for 12% off purchase of $60 or more. Expires 2/15/10!

If you’re feeling extra lucky, you can enter my giveaway here! I’ll randomly choose one winner from all the comments I get here on my blog and send you the Flirty Apron seen here:

Flirty Apron Giveaway

MANDATORY FOR CONTEST ENTRY

1. Visit the Flirty Apron website, and in my comments tell me which style is your favorite one.

EXTRA CONTEST ENTRY

1. Follow @Flirty_Aprons on Twitter.
2. Follow @JustJulie on Twitter. (I follow back!)
3. Subscribe to receive Just Julie’s Kitchen in your email (top right on sidebar)
4. Tweet: Enter to win a Flirty Apron from @JustJulie http://bit.ly/9lnxzZ !

Contest ends Thursday February 11, 2010 at 12:00 noon PST. I will choose ONE random winner from all the entries and notify you by email. You have 48 hours to respond. Special thanks to Flirty Apron for supplying an apron for me, and one to giveaway!

American Airlines plans to sell an $8 packet that includes a pillow and blanket starting May 1.

Blissdom was fabulous! There is so much I could rave about. The crowd, 500 bloggers strong, was just the right size, the schedule was busy without feeling packed, the sessions were interesting and useful, the sponsors were appreciated and set up in such a way that attendees didn't feel like we were in a massive trade show. And the women- such an inspiring and talented group! For details and links, I'm going to send you over to Christine Koh's thoughtful and thought-provoking blog for the Biggest Blissdom Link Love Lovefest Ever.

If you've never been to a blogging conference, one of the smaller events like Blissdom, Evo, TypeAMom or Blogalicious is the way to go. Not only will you learn a lot, but you will make more connections than at the larger events. Paradoxical perhaps, but true.

{stepping off soap box}

One thing that stands out in my mind was a whispered conversation (or five) on a topic that was not addressed in any of the panels I attended- should bloggers write for free?

This was touched upon somewhat in my session with the fabulous Alli Worthington, Barbara Jones, Audrey McClelland and Nancy Smith in which we discussed earned media (such as writing unpaid product reviews) vs. paid media (running ads or sponsored posts).

I believe it was Alli who spoke up to say that even though you write free content for your blog, a corporation should not be reposting it on their website without compensation.

But what if a blogger contributes to sites like Alli's own Blissfully Domestic, or TypeAMom or powerhouse Silicon Valley Moms Blog Group? Sites that have large audiences and run advertisements? Should you contribute to those kind of sites for free?

Only you can answer that question.

{stepping back on soap box}

In many cases, though, I say yes, you should.

First off, keep in mind that the hosts of those sites are likely not striking it rich just yet (and quite possibly never will). And even if the site owners do seem to be rolling in money now, well here's what my husband likes to remind me in regard to my consulting, "If you take into account the thousands of hours you've spent online in the last 5 years, you're billing rate is under $10 an hour."

{No, he's not nearly as jerky as he sounds.}

It generally takes a lot of sweat equity to build a successful site. But enough about the site hosts, what about you?

I mean, what about me?

I've been a volunteer contributor to the Chicago Moms Blog since it launched in 2007. Joining that blog not only introduced me to a wonderful group of local bloggers, but it instantly connected me to dozens (now hundreds) of other mombloggers. One of those bloggers hired me for a problogging position which later brought me to a consulting gig, another sent me on my first blogger junket which also led to other great experiences, and yet another might be publishing on of my essays in her forthcoming book. Hell, I went to Club Med because of a post at Chicago Moms Blog.

On top of that, I've developed lasting friendships, both personal and professional.

I'm just a click away from great advice, both personal and professional.

I've built my platform and reached a heck of a lot more readers than I would have at my blog alone.

Honestly, since I have more demands on my time, I debate my continued involvement, but for now I'm staying. I still reap something from the effort I put in and I feel little is asked of me in return.

If only more of life worked that way.

It often doesn't.

In fact, if you're not in a win-win situation, then you are most certainly the one on the losing end of the deal. If you don't feel valued, or, even worse, feel you are being taken advantage of because of your willingness to provide free content, stop doing it.

{stepping down again and tucking my soapbox under my bed}

If you have a Twitter account and value your health I advise you read this closely.
If you don’t have a Twitter account, read it from far away. But please read it, this could save your life.

For decades, there’s been a dietary war that pits The Unhealthy vs. The Healthy. In America, citizens get fatter every year. This happens elsewhere too, but since I’m an American it’s my patriotic duty to not care about “elsewhere.”

If you’re on Twitter you can’t help but see food-oriented tweets pass through your stream.
Oftentimes, the only thing a person has to say that day revolves around their wish to eat a burrito. Or mad desire to drain a keg. Wishes and desires are one thing, but when the person takes action to consume these fatty substances, danger sets in. A staggering percentage of tweeters eat from a toxic menu. Have you ever seen anyone tweeting about a delicious carrot or the joy of drinking cold, calcium-enriched milk? Doubt it.

The most alarming part of this decrepit dietary data is that even Big Time Twitter users, the Twitter Elite, so to speak, have questionable palates. Perhaps they’re the worst culprits, considering their tweets stretch far and wide, thus influencing eaters across the globe. Here are a crazy eight who consistently forage in the top portion of the food pyramid …


Calvin Lee (@Mayhemstudios) Successful designer, all around sweetheart, avid tweeter and number one on the chow-hound list, Calvin is affectionately known as a Cheeseburger Crime Lord. Frankly, any cheese, of any kind… any cheese on anything, is his weakness. Melted yummy cheese, cheese, cheese. He’s not a drinker but restaurant-oriented tweets of his foursquare.com locations bear witness to a food trail spanning many miles.
[Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Shelly Kramer (@ShellyKramer) This marketing strategist, takes no prisoners, tells it like it is, holding court like nobody’s business. And she isn’t shy about her food and alcohol adoration. Shelly goes so far as to list Milk Duds and beer in her bio, right up there with her professional accolades. Hold on, the buck doesn’t stop there, her tweets are saturated in fearless vodka shots and overflowing goblets of wine. Hot pie is her frequent nightcap. [Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Susan Elaine (@BuzzEdition) A staple of Twitter, Susan wields her magic social media strategist wand garnering a bevy of followers to her flock for a feast of informative and entertaining links. However, when you least expect it she’ll surge forth a sugary trail of tweetage featuring candies, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin pie, all of which are washed down by Long Island Ice Teas.
[Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Krystyn Chong (@krystynchong) A geek, gamer and a great source for Blip.fm music. Her emoticons are infectious, it’s no wonder she’s got a hankering for smile pie and wow, she sure does dish it out. She loves the pie. She is the pie. The apple pie. Once drunk on sugar, Krys gets even more tweet tipsy — guzzling fancy vodka and expensive tequila. Dayum girl!
[Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Arjun Basu (@ArjunBasu) is a much-favorited big shot on favstar.fm. This heavily followed writer laces his 140-character fiction with a steady stream of alcohol-drinking drunkards. Very colorful tales are told, but it’s no wonder many of his characters experience damaged relationships. Occasionally some of Arjun’s protagonists suffer spontaneous flatulence as well, but I’m unsure if that’s booze induced.
[Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu) A social media enterprise maven, and steady tweeter, he pumps out acres of solid content. You’d think someone so prolific would get awfully hungry. Oddly enough, Reg’s tweet menu items are few and far between, but when the edibles do surface, bet your ass it’s 1000 calorie pie, grease burgers, strong wine and refrigerated beer.
[Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Danny Brown (@DannyBrown) This busy fella is creator of the charity 12For12K and a steadfast social media strategist who lets his hair down after 9 p.m. EST. If you start to see a river of typos, get the life raft, there’s either a beer or white wine tweetage involved. Getting sloshed is mostly a weekend event for Danny, unless he’s learned how to hide it well during the week. He’s Scottish. Scots can drink you under the table… and leave you with the bill. Or so I’ve heard. [Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Don’t get me wrong, these top tweeters can also enlighten you to awesome links and the latest breaking news, but be warned, follow these people and your waistline may expand as your cholesterol level rises and your alcohol level slides deep into the DUI range. #JustSayin.



The pie preferences of tweeters as witnessed above, are shocking. When broken down by gender, Twitter pie loving comes out to 1% men and 99% women. Due to the mind-boggling gender bias of these findings, I’ve made a chart for anyone not familiar with statistics, look to the right.

Speaking of pie, a few top users tweet with trousers down, wooing the 140, cruising a coital path to seek their sustenance…

Jason X (@TheUserPool) is often rated x but please add two more for a triple: XXX. Jason’s staple of choice is p*ssy. Yes, p*ssy. And I don’t mean he eats cats. Although many men (and women) may find this an awesome way to dine out, trust me, the potential dangers to your health are astronomical. Although it might be a diet worth looking into… more closely. [Clogged Artery Rating: ]

Listen folks I’m not your mama or the foodie mafia here, but I hope what you’ve read above helps raise awareness about the severity of this issue. If this blog helps even one person to tweet out a salad once in awhile I’ve done my job.

And you? What ya’ been eatin’.
How do you feel about food tweets? Do food tweets make you hungry? If so, do you act on that hunger?
All commenters win a free slice of my virtual pie.

-Follow me on Twitter @CTK1

There are some visual images that make us feel good, whether it's a natural phenomenon like a rainbow, a man-made wonder like the Pyramids of Egypt or an emotionally impactful work of art like Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. To that list one might add logos - a graphic illustration that best exemplifies a product and is sensually pleasing to the eye. And there probably is no other design that has captured our modern-day imagination for as long as the Apple logo.

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Kotex Printable Coupons was first posted on February 8, 2010 at 8:40 pm.
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Award-winning director (and three-time Oscar nominee) David Lynch (of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks fame) and the David Lynch Foundation Television have teamed up with mobile video marketer Mogreet to bring video MMS messages to Lynch fans.

We spoke with Mogreet and the David Lynch Foundation about the technology, the purpose of the campaign and how the DLF is using social media and technology to further its message.

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Spreading a Message With Mobile Video

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The ever-increasing pace of smartphone adoption only underscores the growing importance of mobility. As we’ve seen with everything from mobile app stores to the Red Cross’s text message for Haiti campaign, mobile is an extremely valuable platform for brands and nonprofits to get their messages across.

Video is an important communication driver, too, and when you combine the two technologies together, you end up with something potentially amazing.

Last month, we wrote about Thwapr, a company that specializes in doing mobile-to-mobile video. We see mobile video messaging as something that’s only going to continue to grow, especially as more and more companies realize just how many users are able to actually view video on their phones.

One of the companies that is really focused on mobile video marketing is Mogreet. Mogreet works with companies so that they can send video MMS messages to users that request their information. Because virtually every mobile phone sold since 2005 or so can support MMS messages that include video playback, the potential audience for these sorts of messages is huge.

I spoke with James Citron, the CEO of Mogreet, and he told me that the company has more than 2,700 device profiles in its database, meaning that if you have a cell phone, chances are, it can play one of Mogreet’s video MMS messages. Each video is encoded in a variety of different formats and it is sent to phones in the best format for that phone, so that users of an iPhone get a different experience than someone using a Motorola Razr, but each user gets the best possible experience for his or her device.

While this has primarily been used for commercial advertisers, Mogreet is interested in getting into the non-profit space too, because that’s perhaps an even better market for this sort of service. Think about it, what if you could donate and then get a video message back showing someone who is helped by your donation saying thanks? Or what if you could see what is going on in Haiti or some other place that needs aid? The non-profit organization’s message might be that much more powerful. After all, images often speak louder than words.

To that end, Mogreet decided to work with the David Lynch Foundation and bring some of Lynch’s talents — and messages — to his fans.

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David Lynch Goes Mobile

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The David Lynch Foundation Television is dedicated to documenting programs that awaken creativity and transform lives. To that end, the foundation has a website, DLF.TV, that has lots of video content of David Lynch and of people the Foundation has helped, as well as of other artists and friends who have support the Foundation’s vision.

The first mobile video message that the DLF will be sending to fans is of a short film that Lynch directed featuring the musician and artist Ariana Delawari. Delawari’s debut album, Lion of Panjshir was recorded in Kabul and Los Angeles, and reflects the cultures of both places. Delawari’s decision to return to Afghanistan in 2007 to record the album influenced her work and its overall sound. Like Lynch, Delawari is a student of transcendental mediation and like Lynch, it has also influenced her life and her work.

Lynch directed a six-minute short showing off Delawari’s style and voice. The style is unmistakable Lynch, from the background to the sound mix to the camera angles. It’s also a piece that works well when viewing on the web or on a mobile phone.

To spread the word about Delawari — and to kick off a mobile-type of initiative — fans can text ‘LYNCH’ to 647338.

It’s an interesting approach to spread a message from an always-interesting director. It’s also something we expect to be a growing trend, especially as nonprofits start to embrace the power of mobile.

What do you think about mobile video? Are you a fan of David Lynch? What do you think of this initiative? Let us know!

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Reviews: video

Tags: david lynch, MMS, Mobile 2.0, video, video messaging, web video