Ypulse Essentials: Discovery/Hasbro Unveil 'The Hub', Death To The Slush Pile, Nike's True City

Editor’s Note: Ypulse will be off on Monday for MLK Day. Have a good long weekend everyone!

Hasbro, Discovery present… ‘The Hub’ (the heretofore unnamed kids’ network set to launch later this year. Also coming soon… hubworld.com. Also ch-ch-changes keep coming at Disney) (Los Angeles Times) (Forbes)

- Red Cross cracks the code (to Gen Y giving, organizing a mass relief effort for Haiti via text messages. Also Zynga runs a campaign for Haiti on FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker. Plus United Way and Serve Marketing team up for a gritty campaign against teen pregnancy) (MediaPost, reg. required) (Social Times) (Fox News)

- Oscar Meyer cuts the music (abandoning its two long-running jingles in favor of a new campaign emphasizing the “joy and exuberance” of deli meats) (New York Times, reg. required)

- Fashion braces (a dangerous underground beauty trend in Thailand. Also a study in Oregon ties the recent outbeak of a teen choking game to to mental health issues) (Minn Post) (Los Angeles Times)

- British indie film ‘Fish Tank’ (follows 15 year-old Mia as she survives life in the housing project. Also “DARE” the indie film we screened at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup event last year is out on DVD on February 9, 2010) (New York Times, reg. required)

- The 2020 Project (HuffPo blogger Maegan Carberry sets out on a cool mission to talk witgh “the 25 most dynamic Millennial generation leaders I know in politics, media and technology,” starting with young, conservative activist Jon Henke) (Huffington Post)

- Death to Slushy (Wall Street Journal on the the passing era of unknown authors and unsolicited manuscripts, save a few major exceptions—um, Stephenie Meyer?! Also interesting note on HarperCollins’ web slush pile platform Inkspot. Also Longstockings, a new site from Coe Booth, Daphne Grab, Lisa Greenwald, Jenny Han, Caroline Hickey, and Siobhan Vivian)

- So goes Gaga (so goes the millennial nation. The Next Great Generation explains the symbiotic relationship. Also MySpace Records goes through some rocky times) (via Derek Baird:: Barking Robot) (TechCrunch)

- Nike launches ‘True City’ (a really cool looking mobile travel guide app available for now in six European cities. Also Stanford updates its iPhone app development course for a new semester on iTunes U) (PSFK) (ars technica)