Who Would Pay $300,000 for a Barbie Doll - A New One!

A new Barbie Doll recently sold at a New York auction house for an amazing $302,500. Why so much? Maybe because the Barbie was wearing a choker necklace with a one-carat square-cut pink diamond. The doll also had on a black strapless evening dress. The successful buyer was not disclosed.

Housewarming at $1 Billion Home

A housewarming event is being held at the world's most expensive home which took seven years to construct. The home was built by India billionaire Mukesh Ambani for his family of six.

The house is 400,000 square feet on 27 floors, with three helipads, and a view of the ocean. The house also has a 168 space parking lot, a movie theater, heath club, swimming pool, and yoga studio.

It cost $1,000,000,000 to build.

$430,000 for Michael Jordan's Mercedes

Michael Jordan's 2007 Mercedes McLaren SLR 722 is up for sale for only $430,000. It has low mileage, only 962 miles. The car goes from zero to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds. The car has a 5 1/2-liter V8 with 640 horsepower. It can speed as fast as 209 miles an hour.

In addition to all the above features of the car, the buyer will also have the benefit of owning a car that was owned and driven by Michael Jordan. Jordan paid $475,000 for the car a few years ago.

Automobile in picture is similar to the one being sold.

$1.7 Million of Teddy Bears Sold

Christie's just auctioned off over $1.7 million worth of collectible teddy bears, the largest sale of teddy bear toys ever, formerly owned by hedge fund manager Paul Greenwood, who admitted to embezzling $900 million from investors. The highest priced lot was a Harlequin bear from the 1920's, which was hammered at $74,000. All the bears were made by Steiff of Germany.

Billionaire Pays Streaker at Obama Speech

In the category of billionaire odd news, billionaire Alki David had offered to pay $1 million to anyone who would streak at a speech given by President Obama. A man from Staten Island New York took him up on his offer but was stopped by police before he could complete his run.

Since the streaker made an effort, the billionaire has agreed to pay for the streaker's annual rent, the medical bills of the streaker's sister, and additional funds.

Billionaire Books

There are over 750 books with the word 'billionaire' in the title. Here is just a small selection.

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal ~ Ben Mezrich

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine ~ Benjamin Wallace

1,000 Dollars and an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire: Expanded Edition ~ Sam Wyly

Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks: Inside the Contrarian Mind of Billionaire Mogul Sam Zell ~ Ben Johnson

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do ~ Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa

Think Like a Billionaire, Become a Billionaire ~ Scot Anderson

Billionaire Secrets to Success ~ Bill Bartmann

How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth ~ Martin S. Fridson

Trump Strategies for Real Estate: Billionaire Lessons for the Small Investor ~ Andrew James McLean

Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger ~ Janet Lowe

Speaking of billionaires, don't forget to also check out our previous articles about books about billionaire Warren Buffett and trading like Warren Buffett.

Billionaires Need to Protect Their Privacy

Guest Article

by John Sileo

Facebook is a cigarette, information is the nicotine, and you are the addict. And it is time to stop blaming Facebook if you get privacy cancer.

Years ago, after a long and drawn out fight, the tobacco industry was forced to put labels on their cigarette packs warning smokers that these nicotine delivery devices caused cancer, birth defects and premature death. The warnings did little to slow down sales of cigarettes, though they might have helped the tobacco companies avoid some costly lawsuits because, after all, they had clearly warned users about the dangers.

With the latest iteration of privacy settings being introduced this week on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (or more likely the brilliant Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg) has discovered a similar truth - you are either too addicted to the information drug, or too indifferent to the privacy consequences, to care.

I applaud Facebook for giving users more visibility and a bit more control over how much personal information third party applications can access. They deserve credit for moving the application controls into the privacy section of the website, acknowledging, albeit quietly, that third-party data-mining is a significant source of non-consensual information leakage.

If Facebook would go one step further and demand that third-party apps give us a choice of how much information is shared, along with letting us know how much of our personal information is being shared through the apps that our friends install, we information survivalists would be that much happier. For example, even if you don't allow your third-party apps to share personal information, your friends' third-party apps could be sharing it anyway. But as it stands now, we would never know it.

The good news for Facebook privacy doesn't end there. Facebook has also redesigned the Groups feature, which theoretically gives you a greater level of control over subsets of friends and how much information they can access. For example, you could choose to share your vacation pictures with family and close friends, but not with co-workers who thought you were out sick. Dishonesty aside, group differentiation makes communication within your social network much more like that of the real world - acknowledging that you don't share all things with all people equally.

Here's where the news gets really good for Facebook - they have done their job (or at least have taken steps in the right privacy direction), and they can still bank on you ignoring the very controls they have given you! Sure, those of us who write about social networking professionally will make the changes, but ninety-nine percent of the people who read this article will do nothing with the knowledge. This claim isn't grounded in bitter cynicism, but statistical fact. I hope that 500 million of you will prove me wrong. When the Facebook changes are live for everyone (they are in beta as I type), we'll put up a new video showing you how to make them.

Granted, Facebook hasn't done everything they should do to make THEIR use of OUR data completely transparent to US; but most of US have done nothing to utilize the tools THEY already built to protect OUR privacy anyway, so the point is mute. Facebook is banking billions on our indifference and inaction.

Facebook executives should roll this strategy out to its logical conclusion: give all of us privacy professionals (the Electronic Frontier Foundation, EPIC, the World Privacy Forum, me) exactly what we want, because your Facebook addicts are already too high on info-voyerism to kick the habit. Your product is too good and too necessary to too many people to be hindered by a bit more transparency and a little more control. You have nothing to lose but our complaints.

John Sileo speaks professionally about social media exposure, identity theft and cyber crime for the Department of Defense, Fortune 1000 companies and any organization that wants to protect the profitability of their private information. He is the author of the book Privacy Means Profit: Prevent Identity Theft and Secure You and Your Bottom Line.

Damages Due To and Recovery From the Economic Recession

The damage that economic recession has done to financial market conditions has been serious. A few of its after-effects include the significant rise in the rate of unemployment, decrease in real estate values, and unsuccessful attempts by some of the world’s biggest corporation to even survive. Even many immigrants, both legal and illegal, have returned back to their home country.
Home foreclosures have been the number one topic in the news. Americans are losing their jobs, and the ones who are lucky enough to keep their jobs are turning to payday loan companies and online lenders. Even the pawnshops are doing a booming business. Consumers are stuck having to do a cash advance comparison to determine the best alternative for borrowing money.

There is an immediate need for a positive change through market revival by getting back to business. The government and major multinational companies need to come forward and take steps in order to help their country get back on their feet. First and foremost, there is a strong need for an increase in the rate of employment rate, both in the public sector as well as the private sector companies. Banks need to start lending more money to both individuals and businesses. But judging from the way things are moving now, it’s very difficult to have an optimistic opinion about the future.

In spite of this downturn in the economy, there has been some encouraging news. According to the Institute of Supply Management, economic activity in the non-manufacturing sector grew for the ninth consecutive month in September. As for manufacturing, the sector expanded in September for the 14th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 17th consecutive month, according to the ISM. More and more investors are having an optimistic prediction that the situation of our economy is going to come back to normal.

Crude oil recently rose above $83 a barrel, another indication that growth in the economy is taking place. But we cannot completely rule out the possibility of things getting worse again; the dreaded 'double-dip'. The US recovery appears to have lost its speed and is struggling to get back with the unemployment issues being a first priority.
Having a positive opinion towards the problem of recession is obviously great, but just a positive approach to it simply won’t fix the problem as it is much more deep rooted than we can ever imagine. The government needs to start tackling this problem starting from the ground level up. Only then will the country be able to slowly but steadily achieve a stronger economy.

Facebook Founder Backs Legal Marijuana

In the state of California, Proposition 19, if it passes, would legalize the use of marijuana for personal use and taxation. Dustin Moskovitz, one of the co-founders of Facebook and a billionaire, supports the proposition and has donated $70,000 to the cause.

His support is based on his opinions that it would reduce overcrowding of non-violent offenders in prisons and improve the California economy.

picture courtesy of Wikipedia

$100,000 Beatle Fingerprints Confiscated by the FBI

A shop in New York City, GOTTA HAVE IT!, was in the process of auctioning off the fingerprints of Beatle John Lennon along with a lot of other celebrity memorabilia, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation confiscated the item. Even Homeland Security got involved. The prints were expected to sell for over $100,000.

The fingerprint card was consigned by an unnamed promoter. The FBI was looking into whether the card was illegally retrieved from government files. At least the other 850 celebrity lots were unaffected.