Ypulse Essentials: Read Across America With The Lorax, Social Media At Mealtime, Santigold's Millennial Anthem

Tomorrow, March 2, is Read Across America day (and this year’s featured book is “The Lorax” — he reads for the trees! The cast of the upcoming film recorded a PSA for the event, and Zac Efron will be on hand for the national kick off event. In other reading news, tweens are getting their own shelves at libraries. Too old for “story time” and too young for teen-oriented YA books, librarians are curating collections — and spaces — just for them) (Cynopsis) (School Library Journal)

- Social media and meals go together like peas and carrots (with young people tweeting, posting, and connecting with others while eating. Not only do people check in at restaurants and post pics to their social nets, they’re also using social media to learn about food trends. Speaking of social check ins, VH1 and Foursquare have teamed up to Save The Music. Beginning today, the first 35k fans who check in to a music venue on Foursquare will earn an exclusive Save The Music badge, and for every check in, $1 will be donated to the cause) (Mashable) (Web Pro News)

- We can’t get enough of Santigold and we’re counting the days until May 1 when her new album comes out (but in the meantime, we’re loving her video for the single “Disparate Youth” which is equally sultry and strange. The song could have been written for the Millennial generation with lyrics like “Don’t look ahead, there’s stormy weather / But where we go, we go together”) (NY Mag)

- Facebook has opened its timeline feature up for brands (that can use it to make themselves more Millennial-friendly. The timeline tells the life story of the brand, cataloging its firsts and highlighting its biggest moments, all the while building the sense of authenticity and history) (Ad Age, reg required)

- Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation officially launched (yesterday on Harvard’s campus, but will soon hit the road in the Born Brave Bus, which will follow Gaga on her next North American Tour. Mother Monster also stopped by a few student organized summits in which students share personal stories about how they’ve been affected by bullying and left empowered to make changes in their community) (Boston Globe) (Harvard Crimson)

- School curriculum consists of reading, writing, ‘rithmatic, and programming? (That was the plan behind a new programmable computer, the Raspberry Pi, which sells for a mere £22, and it definitely generated some interest — so much so that it sold out in minutes. Ultimately, the goal is to put a Raspberry Pi into the hands of schoolchildren so they’ll understand the inner workings of computers and programming) (Guardian)

- We’re following the latest goings on at the 2012 TED conference (and you can too. All the presentations, inspiring moments, and innovative concepts are rapidly being posted to the TED blog)