LATEST CODE ******** http://jsfiddle.net/CXqM2/209/ *******
This example will rely on some development on the backend to provide a priority element - using the notification date and the notification id to help identify the priority element in the stream. I've added the date sorting to the isotope code.
getSortData: {
date: function ($elem) {
var dates = $elem.attr('data-user-notification-date');
dateArray = dates.split('/'),
year = dateArray[2].substr(0, 4),
month = dateArray[1],
day = dateArray[0];
timeArray = dates.split(':'),
hours = timeArray[0].slice(-2),
minutes = timeArray[1],
seconds = timeArray[2];
return new Date(year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds);
}
}