According to the Washington Post, Facebook signed up its 500 millionth user last week, a mere 6 years after the site was launched. There are now more people on Facebook than live in the United States, Canada and Mexico combined!

Facebook and other social networking sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, have changed the way many people communicate, including me. I don’t have hundreds of “friends” on Facebook, the way some folks do, but I communicate frequently with the ones I do have. I don’t update my “status” every time I change rooms in the house but I do update it several times a week with information I wish to share with my relatively small circle of Facebook friends. And I actually take the time to read what my friends are posting on Facebook, too. I extended a friend request (or responded to one) because I was genuinely interested in what that particular person had to say, so why wouldn’t I read their posts?

Facebook is frequently used for commercial purposes and they created the concept of Pages to accommodate those who want to promote their business, organization or non-profit. For these users, a large “fan” base is important but for a personal page, like mine, a more select group is a much better way to go.

So who are some of my friends? Well, my family, of course, and all my business contacts that are on Facebook. But I also have a number of author friends, including a talented young woman from Ireland and Robert J. Sawyer, the author of the book that spawned the “Flash Forward” TV series. Others include our local tourism department, several book stores and scuba shops around the globe and the TV shows Big Bang Theory and Chuck.

Facebook certainly isn’t perfect, but it provides a robust venue where I can share pictures and thoughts with real and virtual friends all over the world. There have been plenty  of scary stories about Facebook in the press lately, but I believe if you manage your personal information carefully and select your friends even more carefully the risks are minimal.

See ya out there in cyberspace!

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If you think we’re winning the “war on drugs” you’d better think again! The Cocaine Sub pictured to the left was seized in Ecuador, just south of the Columbian border on July 2, 2010 prior to its maiden voyage. The 98-foot-long (30-meter-long) fiberglass sub was big enough to hold 6 to 10 tons of cocaine and a 6-member crew. The remote swamp camp where it was built was outfitted to support 50 workers, though only 1 was present at the time of the raid.

Cocaine subs have been used along the Pacific coast and in the Caribbean for several years but earlier versions could only dip just below the surface to avoid detection. With a ballast system never before seen in a cocaine sub, this “new and improved” model appears capable of diving as deep as 65 feet (20 meters) and suggests smugglers are rapidly improving on the more common, semisubmersible designs, which are already difficult to detect.

The earlier versions cost up to $1 million USD to build and were designed to be scuttled if approached by the authorities or when they reached their final destination. In other words, they were built to make a single voyage! It’s unclear what the plans were for the newest design but their relatively small cost, compared to the $100 million cargo they carry, may mean that they are also single-use vessels.

For more information, Google “narco sub” or visit this Wikipedia page.

Environmentalist Andy Brandy Casagrande wrote a little ballad aptly titled The Great White Shark Song to raise awareness of Great White shark conservation and he decided the best way to promote it would be to sing it directly to one of the fearsome underwater beasts — without using a cage!

Andy’s quirky lyrics begin with the line: “If I was a great white I wouldn’t bite you, but I’d swim right next to you.” To watch the video, click here.

The footage was recorded at Guadalupe Island, off the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, an area known for its large population of Great White sharks. For more information about Guadalupe Island and its shark conversations projects, read my article on my BajaDivers.com website.

More than 6,000 bottles of sparkling wine were pulled from the deep by divers this week after aging for a year more than 200 feet below the surface off the coast of Chiavari, Italy. The winemakers have dubbed the vintage “Abyss” and they believe the gentle rocking caused by the local currents and the natural temperature changes of the water have enhanced the wine’s fruity taste.

“It’s delicious!” declared one diver after cracking open a bottle.