As IF Times

link Facebook shares jump, then fade as trading opens – USATODAY.com.

Obviously we can’t let one of the biggest events of the year pass without some observation.  In the preceding weeks leading up the much hyped initial public offering of Facebook stock, much of what has been posted in the blogsphere has been somewhat skeptical.  Although Wall Street Banks will place a value of over $100 billion on the enterprise value of the company, most media comments have been leery of such lofty pricing.

It’s easy to point out that in some ways, Facebook is a stock about nothing, since they really do not manufacture any tangible product.  The entire basis for the existence of the wildly popular platform is the catering to the natural narcissism and voyeurism that exists in most humans, especially young people.  That a company which creates nothing tangible but can be the most valuable company in history is intuitively puzzling at first.   In fact, perhaps the true value of the company is that in essence, it is the world’s largest billboard.  On that basis, corporations that DO make actual products  want to have that exposure to their products.  Who wouldn’t want their ads for cars or make-up seen by hundreds of millions of users?

Imagine if the celebrity of the day decides that they like a particular brand of shoe and posts it on their Facebook page.  Instantly, sales for that shoe will skyrocket.  Ask anyone with a teenager.

Ironically, this should rub against the occupy crowd who had used Facebook and other social media conduits to organize their protests against….corporations and greed.  If you think about it, Facebook may be responsible for a renaissance in the fortunes of many consumer companies of America….or China.  We can make the case that Facebook is now considered to be THE avenue for marketing by corporations.

But it’s not just that.  If one looks into the business plans of the company, they include creating their own currency, or credits, to be used to purchase items both virtual and real.  In addition, the realm of on-line payments will be another potentially huge revenue area for the burgeoning firm.  In this pursuit, they will run up against Google, no slouch as a company either, who are also pursing such initiatives.  For the next while, learned arguments justifying or dismissing the market value of Facebook will rage on and only the market will be the final arbiter of this.   The point is that Facebook has tapped into the holy grail of marketing, by catering to people’s need to be included socially.  How do you put a value on that?

link Dinosaurs farted their way to extinction, British scientists say | Fox News.

The implications of this ‘news story’ are mind boggling.   While I am certainly not in a position to scientifically question the astounding conclusion of this study, if these scientists’ claims are valid, some big changes are going to happen to our society.

The very first thing that comes to mind is the concept of being a vegetarian.  As astute readers of the article will notice, most of these behemoth monsters were actually vegetarians, consuming mainly plants and trees, albeit by the acre, Michael Moore-like.  As most consumers of beans and legumes are aware, consumption of such stuff can lead to embarrassing moments in crowded elevators.  Apparently, the dinosaurs had the same issues millions of years ago and they gassed themselves to extinction.  Logically, we can only extrapolate that vegetarian humans are actually harming our present environment and therefore they should be stopped immediately before it’s too late.

If we were able to monitor the air over San Francisco, Los Angeles or Vancouver, there’s a certainty that the air quality would show higher than the normal measures of toxic gases, which we can now trace  to rampant vegetarianism among their populace.  People may be forgiven who had thought that BS emanating from these cities were responsible for the bad air.  Of course, this gas issue is already known by those who are participants in Yoga classes.   They should immediately form an organization called STOP generating annoying smells, or STOP GAS.

If human vegetarians are a menace to society, then so are all herbivores.  For years, there were theories that cows were in fact the greatest contributors to global warming due to their release  of methane gas from eating grass.  Now, the fickle finger of blame is zeroing in on these dangerous animals.  This dangerous list of herbivores will include goats, sheep, deer, elephants and giraffes too.  All of these creatures are hastening the doom of mankind.  It turns out that eating meat is not only tasty, it’s also green and socially responsible!  Eating broccoli is bad after all!

Another implication of this story is that scientists seem to have the ability to discern the cause of events looooong past their occurrence by persistent and ingenious sleuthing.  Even though dinosaurs died off a few million years ago, apparently the cause of their demise is evident even now, as if it were a slightly cold CSI case and the chalk outline was in clear view.  It’s hard to believe that the dinosaur conclusion wasn’t arrived at sooner.  It was right under our noses; all that was needed was to stitch a bunch of seemingly unrelated pieces of evidence together as if it were a Mississippi trial.   This should scare all criminals.  The truth will come out eventually, although perhaps a few million years down the road.  It will only be a matter of time before they apply modern science to unravel some of the true puzzles of modern life; such as the mystery  of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance or how they get the caramilk in a caramilk bar.