What Caught My Eye Today - Facebook, Art Work, Longevity

Facebook - Last week, Facebook announced it reached a remarkable milestone: 1 billion active users. Since  its audience was just half that as recently as July 2010, and the entire world has only about 2.5 billion Internet users, that's an impressive achievement. I'm not sure which is more impressive--that Facebook has 1 billion users, or that 1 billion people (yours truly included) have conscientiously given up any expectation of privacy. However Facebook is only getting about $1.28 in revenue per user and has not been able to translate those 1 billion users into giant profits. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing a radical transformation that will put mobile services at the heart of Facebook's future. The company is also just beginning to launch new business lines based on its massive bank of user data, and still has the potential to reinvent social advertising. Maybe you've heard about this last little money maker... Facebook is now testing a feature that lets users get more visibility for their status updates, for a whopping $7 per post. I for one think this is long overdue. Statistics suggest that I might only be seeing useless updates from only 16% of my "friends".  Someone might be having the "number two" of a lifetime, and I could so totally miss it.

Art Work - I'm all for a free marketplace and for merchants having the freedom to sell the stuff that people want to buy, but it seems to me, a boundary has been crossed here.  Costco is back in the fine art business. Since relaunching its "Fine Art" section last month, Costco has sold at least eight works, including a lithograph by Henri Matisse for $1000, a lithograph by Georges Braque for $1400 and a screen print by Andy Warhol for $1450. Finally! I was beginning to think all those comment cards I submitted weren't getting read. I cannot tell you how frustrating it has been not being able to pick up some toilet paper and some fine art without having to make multiple stops. Costco suspended sales of high-priced prints and drawings 6 years ago after questions were raised about the authenticity of two Pablo Picasso drawings it sold. Interesting. I thought nothing of using last year's rebate check to purchase the Hope Diamond.

Longevity - A word of warning to the lads. You might just want to skip this item altogether.  Korean researchers have uncovered a surefire way to add up to 20 years to men's lives: castrate them. Analysis of genealogical records of males who were castrated as boys to serve in the palace of the Chosun Dynasty between the late 14th and early 20th centuries showed that the eunuchs lived between 14 and 19 years longer than their non-castrated peers. The findings support the idea that male sex hormones decrease the life span of men. In contrast to estrogen, which appears to enhance longevity, testosterone and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Lower levels of the male hormone may be a main reason why women tend to live longer than men and are 10 times as likely to reach the age of 110. Here's the thing. How many of us men would really want to live a hundred years without the ol' twig and berries? Somehow, I cannot help but think that something was missing in my life.