'The Social Network' takes home 4 Golden Globes, including 'Best Motion Picture - Drama'

"The Social Network" has done it again, taking home four Golden Globe Awards at the 68th annual 2011 version of what many call a preview for the Academy Awards. The critically acclaimed movie, which takes a look at the founding of Facebook, has been well-friended during the awards season thus far.

"The Social Network" took home Best Motion Picture - Drama, its director David Fincher won for Best Director - Motion Picture, Aaron Sorkin's screenplay won for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture and its score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross took home a Globe as well.

While often thought of as a harbinger of the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes' motion pictures winners haven't done so well at the Oscars, of late. Following a period of eight consecutive years in which a Golden Globe winner in either the Best Drama or Musical / Comedy category won the Best Film Academy Award, in the last six years, only one such motion picture has done that, 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire."

That said, we certainly expect "The Social Network" to garner a number of Oscar nominations (announced on January 25th), and it certainly has a good chance to win Best Picture. The Academy Awards ceremony will be on Feb. 27.

Facebook's Zuckerberg named to Esquire's '2010 Celebrity Style Hall of Shame'

Should we really care if someone as rich and famous as Mark Zuckerberg dresses well, or not? After all, isn't all his networking via the Internet anyway, hidden from the public eye? Be that as it may, Esquire recently named Zuckerberg to its "2010 Celebrity Style Hall of Shame" list (To be honest, we believe this was announced last year, but for some reason no one really noticed Zuckerberg's naming then.  On the other hand, plenty noticed Robert Pattinson's naming).

Scoring Time's Person of the Year apparently doesn't rate with Esquire. However, we're surprised, if you're going to pick Zuckerberg, that a certain other Silicon Valley CEO who seems to only have turtlenecks and blue jeans in his iCloset isn't on the list, but he's not.

Among the others on the list are Rush Limbaugh, Robert Pattinson, Russell Brand, and Joaquin Phoenix. Esquire said:

you cannot show up to a black-tie event in a t-shirt and jeans and expect to be taken seriously. Seriously.

Their suggestion:

You just gave a hundred million to Newark's schools. Would it kill you to throw a couple thousand to, say, Zegna for a couple of nice suits? Even Bill Gates wears a sport coat, for chrissakes.

True, but remember that when it was suggested that Apple CEO Steve Jobs wear a suit to meet with AT&T execs, one of his subordinates said, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

'Facebook shutdown' rumors circulate, cause social networking panic

It's hard to understand why anyone would believe this sort of story, but it's happened (again). The Internet has gone wild as people tried to search for information on Facebook's "impending closure" after The World Weekly News, a satirical website, posted a fake story that claim Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was closing the site due to "stress."

The article, titled "FACEBOOK WILL END ON MARCH 15th!" possibly should have been titled "The Social Networking World Will End on March 15th!" as folks suddenly started flooding Google Search with "Is Facebook really shutting down?," "Facebook ending March 15?," and "Facebook shutdown." The tremors echoing across the Web still hadn't settled by Sunday morning.

Twitter was hit with Tweets about the issue, with one person not all that unhappy if in terms of the rumor that Facebook was ending on March 15. Instead, he was more concerned that Facebook users would jump to Twitter:

So the rumor is Facebook is shutting down....please don't jump to twitter & ruin my social networking experience.

It's hard to understand why anyone would believe a company recently valued at $50 billion would shut down. If Zuckerberg was that stressed, he would probably take a leave-of-absence or simply step down.

According to the article, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a press conference and said:

“Facebook has gotten out of control, and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”

Even more humorous is the WWN's reported reaction of a high school student and a parent. These are precisely the sorts of reaction we might truly see if Facebook truly was ending on March 15:

“What am I going to do without Facebook?” said Denise Bradshaw, a high school student from Indiana. “My life revolves around it. I’m on Facebook at least 10 hours a day. Now what am I going to do with all that free time?”

“I’m glad the Facebook nightmare is over,” said Jon Guttari, a single parent from Detroit. “Now my teenager’s face won’t be glued to a computer screen all day. Maybe I can even have a conversation with her.”

Considering how the Internet reacts if Facebook, Twitter, or some other social networking site is down for a short down due to an outage, the reaction to the virally spread faux news is not surprising. But users can calm down: the answer to the question "Is Facebook really shutting down?" is "No, get real."

Goldman, Russian firm invest $500 million in Facebook at $50 billion valuation

The hits just keep on coming for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Being named Time's Person of the Year is one thing, but securing $500 million in funds from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies, is definitely another.

The New York Times reported the deal on Sunday. Goldman Sachs invested $450 million and Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm which already has a $200 million stake in Facebook, invested $50 million in a deal valuing Facebook at some $50 billion.

That valuation means that Digital Sky Technologies has seen its initial investment in Facebook, made at a valuation of $10 billion, increase fivefold. Goldman has the right to sell part of its stake, up to $75 million, to the Digital Sky Technologies, the Times' sources said.

That valuation also means that Facebook is now worth more than companies such as Yahoo!, eBay, and Time Warner. MSNBC estimates that Mark Zuckerberg personally may be worth some $14 billion.

In addition to the $500 million stake, as part of the deal, Goldman is required to help Facebook raise an additional $1.5 billion. To do this without triggering an SEC regulation that requires companies with 500 or more investors to disclose their financial results to the public, Goldman will create a “special purpose vehicle” that will allow its high-net-worth clients to in Facebook indirectly.

Earlier, it was reported by Internet tracking firm Experian Hitwise that in 2010 Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited Web site among U.S. visitors. Facebook held 8.9 percent of all Web visits in the United States between January and November 2010, while Google’s main site was second with 7.2 percent, followed by Yahoo!'s Mail, Yahoo’s Web portal and YouTube, a Google subsidiary, but classified separately.