In a delayed response to The Frisky's "The Studs of SXSW" post which unceremoniously omits the fellas of Southby's Interactive to solely highlight the Music-makers, I decided to pay tribute to the nerds of Southby with my own personal list of men who are not only worth watching, but who are worth looking at:

• Mark Hendrickson, founder of Plancast, the much talked-about and utlized service at Southby this year which can be most easily described as “Foursquare for the future." Mark talks to TechCocktail's Frank Gruber and you can easily see why I put him at the top of the list: http://bit.ly/cBvtsB?r=td

• Andy McAfee, HBS professor turned MIT scientist turned best-selling author turned stand-up comedian. Andy somehow packed an early Monday morning session (that means the nerds had been socializing for at least three days straight!) with a talk on Corporate America. Andy is not technically a stand-up comedian but he managed to keep the audience not only awake, but engaged and wanting more.

• Jesse Thomas, also known as the guy who spells his name with a number, Jess3's work was plastered everywhere at Southby. The creative force behind this State of the Internet masterpiece, you can expect big things to come from Jesse in the future.

• Aaron Vest, the man behind the force known as Queen of Spain, or simply Erin Kotecki-Vest's husband. Mr. Vest entertained followers by tweeting the experience of "getting his sxsw cherry popped." In no way does he appear emasculated by having a strong, successful woman as a wife. Rather the opposite.

• Steven, the Robotchampion, Mandzik, aka the man who makes me compost stuff and wash out and reuse my yogurt containers. A true nerd's nerd, the Robot led what I consider one of the best talks at Southby, a very interactive discussion on Zero Waste.

So while Gary Vee still "brought the thunder", while Robert Scoble continued his thought-provoking tech musings, and while Pete Cashmore continued to be just as good-looking in person as he is in his Mashable avatar, I think it's important to recognize new talent and give credit where credit is due. Thanks guys.

A habit is a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance. An addiction is an excessive habit or behavior. I've recently come to the conclusion that I'm a milk addict.

I'm no stranger to addictions nor putting an end to to them. I've given up smoking the occasional cigarette during times of stress (or intoxication), drinking soda at home, and adding sugar and sugar substitutes to beverages. What's intersting is I don't miss them - not that I'm surprised since bad habits usually arise out of a human tendency to address the symptom of problem, rather than the problem itself. Case and point: if I'm feeling tired, drinking a caffeinated soda doesn't address what causes me to be tired in the first place.

So on to my latest habit/addiction: milk. Ever since college, I've been a huge milk consumer - a milk junkie really. One night my freshman year, I drank eight single serving milk cartons in one sitting - which didn't bode too well for me since I discovered I'm lactose intolerant. Then I switched to lactose-free and soy milk and it only fueled my love afair with milk further. I love it in my morning coffee and I love the sugar-free caramel iced soy lattes the baristas at Starbucks create for me. I love it on the rocks. I love it from a box. On average I go through a 32oz carton (4 cups) a day which prompted @robotchampion to challenge me to examine my milk consumption habits as well as milk and the dairy industry. Upon doing so, I discovered some interesting facts.

First, the now famous "Got Milk?" campaign launched in 1993 was done so to compete with beverage titans like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola who were taking away market-share with the emergence of new juices, fruit drinks, iced teas, coffee drinks, bottled waters, and soft drinks. The advertising firm responsible for this campaign concluded that the best way to increase milk consumption was to not focus on the 30% of Americans who didn't consume milk but instead convince the 70% of milk-drinkers to use milk more frequently or to drink it in larger amounts. And it worked. Between 1994 and 1995 alone, milk consumption increased almost 40%.

Second, in 2005, the USDA and HHS recommended an increase in non-fat or low-fat  milk and milk products as one its nine adjustments to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. However, to meet the dairy guidelines, consumption of milk and milk products would have to increase by 66 percent, even though approximately 70% of our population cannot tolerate lactose as adults - we lack of the required enzyme in our digestive system to metabolize the key ingredient in milk.

Third, non-drinking eastern cultures actually have lower incidents of maladies such as osteoporosis. In fact, hip fractures, associated with bone density loss, are more frequent in populations where dairy products are commonly consumed and calcium intakes are relatively high. Why? Many scientists and researchers believe that animal-based diets are the culprit. A 20-year study of the health and dietary habits of rural Chinese found that:

Furthermore it reveals:

Finally, it's been found that caffeine found in coffee and soda acts as a diuretic in the body and increases the amount of calcium we excrete in our urine for several hours after we drink it. Translation: the more soda and coffee we drink, the more calcium we need.

In giving up milk, I'm forgoing soy milk. I'm a little skeptical of something that's so engineered. And it's tough for me to support industries like dairy and soy that do so much harm to the environment. Thank god for Milkaholics Anonymous.

I love WIRED magazine but the December issue's cover story on failure totally missed the boat in chronicling The Fall and Rise of Alec Baldwin. I've been an Alec fan since The Hunt for Red October and it's obvious that Alec's career follows the blueprint for what I call the beauty syndrome. 

So back to Alec. In the late 80s, early 90s, Mr. Baldwin was hot, both professionally and physically (*see Exhibit A)

Exhibit A: Hot Alec

But then the pitfalls of the beauty syndrome kicked in and his life embarked on the following roller coster (*see Exhibit B)

Exhibit B: Beauty Syndrome

The pivotal point of this illustration is Kim Bassinger: as soon as Alec got complacent in the mating department, he packed on the pounds and that's when his career took a turn downward. He could no longer obtain and play the good-looking leading man roles that Clooney stars in. But this forced him character. In order to survive in acting and simply pay the bills, he took "less prestigious" television roles and developed his comedic sense. And it paid off. In 2002, he made an appearance on Friends, one of the highest watched television shows at the time. After Friends, Alec eventually went on to star on 30 Rock, winning critical acclaim and awards (*see Exhibit C)

Exhibit C: Funny Alec

Now he's back on the big screen, starring in comedic leading roles opposite of the likes of Meryl Streep. When it's all said and done, I'm not sure Alec would have ever developed the comedic side we see today if he hadn't lost some of his physical attractiveness. This is the great success story of Alec's revitalized career. 

I felt inspired to enumerate what qualifies a person as a "cool nerd" in response to a recent NYT's article on the topic. I've narrowed it down to 5 basic qualities:

It's been a while since I've seen such a vehement male distaste for a franchise that has females of all ages in an all-consuming frenzy. I don't recall guys dissecting blockbusters Spiderman or Dark Knight with the rapacity males are doing so for Twilight. Was there a Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Guys Learn From Spiderman? (*see Wired's Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Girls Learn From Twilight). In any case, while I neither defend the writing of the Twilight series, nor think any of the movies are or will be Oscar-worthy, there is no denying the impact the series and Edward Cullen has had on the female species. No matter how hard guys refuse to admit it, there are certain truths presented in Twilight that people just need to accept:

1) Females are visual too - we like looking at attractive guys who have hot bodies who dress well.
2)  We like a guy who can appreciate us in flannels and thermals.
3) A guy who can play the piano and is a connoisseur of classical music is hot.
4) A guy who has a good relationship with his family is appealing.
5) We like intrigue and a little mystery at the beginning.
6) Not matter how dedicated we are to you, if you aren't there for us, we'll find another guy who is.
7) We want to feel safe - if you can do this in a non-affrontive, non-suffocating kind of way - you'll score big.
8) Showing interest in us, by asking questions - about what makes us tick, what we like, what we desire - and in general paying attention will get you far.
9) We don't like wandering eyes - a guy who ignores advances of other women and shows loyalty to us will keep us devoted to you.
10) We like it when you open the car door for us.
11) We like a guy who can keep his cool, who has savoir faire and can handle himself and take charge in difficult situations.
12) We like guys who suck on our necks.
13) We don't care for guys who don't answer our questions and lie to us.
14) Humility is attractive.
15) We like guys who go for quality, not quantity.
16) A guy who can show restraint just makes us want you more.
17) We need a guy to be there when we most need him.
18) Smart is sexy.
19) It's a turn-on when a guy can physically pick us up.
20) Once you're in the friend zone, it's tough to break out.