Magnus the friendly Magnify Mascot has resurfaced! He made an unexpected and triumphant return to the spotlight for the Web 2.0 expo in New York. (After his last trip to Madagascar, many believed he wouldn't have the energy to get back to his globetrotting ways.)

Magnus spent the last couple of days attending events, meeting new fans and visiting old friends around New York. Make sure to check out the pictures of his recent adventures and even better, the below video. It has also been announced that Magnus is looking for the next location of his World Tour adventure. If you would like to host him for a couple days, write into to Billy (at) Magnify.net for details.

Magnify.net partner The Weather Channel just unveiled The Guaranteed White Christmas video contest and it is awesome! Out of all the video contests we have run on the Magnify platform, I have got to say, this one might take the cake in the originality department...

The contest gives participants the chance to upload a video telling The Weather Channel why they have been good for goodness sake with the winner getting their house turned into a winter wonderland (for those of us from warmer locals, the thought of The Weather Channel bringing in snow machines to cover our house in snow during the holidays is what dreams are made of). The Weather Channel will also broadcast live from the winner's home and get their video in front of a huge audience. 

Beyond the grandprize, The Weather Channel will also be giving away a bunch of smaller prizes for the contest - there's some good stuff, so get those cameras ready and start shooting.

You can see the official contes...

Today is Veterans Day in the United States and to honor the men and women of the armed forces, we thought we would take a moment to share a couple of Magnify.net channels that focus on the brave soldiers, both past and present.

I have to say that after looking through the network to find channels to feature, I was plesently impressed with the different ways channel owners are using video aggregation and curation in the space. It always makes us happy to see original and innovative work from you guys!

greatamericans.com

video.vfwwebcom.org

vetfriends.magnify.net

veteransday.magnify.net

Have a channel you want us to feature? Send me an email at Billy (at) Magnify.net

We have an impressive new group of interns at Magnify and now that they have gone through the hazing period, we wanted to take a moment out to give them proper introductions. As usaul, we let them write out a couple words about where they came from, what they've been doing and well, anything else they wanted to tell the Magnify community....

Hi everyone, I'm Lewis Rapkin. Upon graduating the University of Vermont, I left the heady organic mountains of groovy UV and headed to the neon-saturated mega-metropolis of Tokyo to shoot a documentary on the underground music scene. Next stop was New York City where I continued with documentary productions. On top of helping out at Magnify, I also work the night shift at a documentary production company assisting PBS television series and HBO documentaries.

I don't have cable TV in my apartment, but I do have the Internet and the potential for online video seems pretty clear. Without being longwinded about my optimism towards the future, ...

By Steve Rosenbaum, CEO, Magnify.net

If you remember a time when telephones had a rotary dial, then you remember the phrase, "Shhh, he's on the phone looong distance!" Long distance was expensive, and precious, and needed to be rationed and treated with care.

That was then.

Today - long distance, short distance, global distance - it's all the same thing: cheap. Because as the network has matured, competition came in and costs came down. And today almost everyone is on a fixed price plan and many folks are using their broadband connections for free audio and video conversations.The simple point is: bandwidth continues to get cheaper and faster, and that means you need to be looking at the cost of video on your Web site in a whole new way. Video should not cost anything. Rather, it should power revenues, pages, engagement and profits. If it isn't, it's time to rethink your bandwidth bill and turn video from a cost center to a profit center. Folks are doing just that.

So here's a quick...