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Facebook wants to put your face on advertisements for products that you like. Facebook.com is a social networking site that lets people accumulate "friends" and share preferences and play games with them. Each member creates a home page where he or she can post photographs, likes and dislikes and updates about their activities. Yesterday, in a twist on word-of-mouth marketing, Facebook began selling ads that display people's profile photos next to commercial messages that are shown to their friends about items they purchased or registered an opinion about.

It came to her while she was passing through an airport, watching kids tentatively pass through scanners and eye security guards patting down their parents. Stormy Friday, author of several books on managing facilities, had found a vehicle to write her first children's story: It would soothe children's fears of flying by having her Siamese cat and two British shorthairs take on an airport caper. "A lot of young children are afraid to go through the metal detector," said Friday, who owns a consulting firm in Annapolis.

Century senior midfielder Ryan Pentz said there is no mystery as to why the Knights lacrosse team has had such a drastic turnaround from last season's 3-9 record to the 11-2 mark the team took into this weekend. "We all understand our roles on the team," Pentz said. "That's why we've been successful so far. It's definitely a big difference from last season. I just think we have a good core of kids. We have a variety of seniors and juniors, mixed with young sophomores. ... We work real well together."

Flanked by the House speaker and Senate president, Gov. Martin O'Malley signed 105 bills into law yesterday, including measures to create the government-efficiency program StateStat, to potentially change the state voting process during presidential contests and to expunge the arrest records of people arrested but never charged with a crime. The three Democratic leaders hailed the 90-day General Assembly session that ended Monday evening as a model for cooperative government but cautioned that serious work remains.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Except for an interest in video games, they seemed so different. One was a skateboarder with a 12-foot halfpipe in his backyard, a guitarist in a rock group and the owner of a nickname - Kid Ego - that belied his shyness. The other was a DJ who disliked professional radio, a student who hated high school and college and who met his future wife in a computer lab. But Todd Sampson and Eric Marcoullier always had a special bond. Friends since fifth grade in Merritt Island, Fla., they eventually found their niche in the dot-com world as co-founders of MyBlogLog, an Orlando-based Web site that they sold Jan. 8 for a reported $10 million to Internet giant Yahoo.

The two Baltimore companies born through the breakup of Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. have shared plenty of things over the years, including office space, human resources functions and even executives who serve on each other's board of directors. Now, Laureate Education Inc. and Educate Inc. have agreed to take their publicly traded companies private in management-led buyouts. The companies have chief executives who have been close friends since attending the Gilman School and who bought and ran Sylvan together before deciding to split it up in 2003.

Free safety Ed Reed, wide receiver Mark Clayton and tight end Daniel Wilcox were just a few of the many Ravens players who made Christmas special for about 450 Police Athletic League youth. But the true stars were the women who helped stage the Christmas party for the children Monday night on the club level at M&T Bank Stadium: the Baltimore Moms Squad. Composed of the mothers and wives of several Ravens players and women in the Baltimore area, the Baltimore Moms Squad was founded about a month ago by Sandy McCrary, mother of former defensive end Michael Mc- Crary, and JacQuetta Clayton, mother of Mark Clayton.

Oh, you've got to hand it to A. Robert Kaufman. He says what's on his mind, doesn't care who likes it and lets the chips fall where they may. And he's honest. Kaufman, Baltimore's perennial Trotskyist candidate for just about everything, doesn't flinch when it comes to telling you what he really believes. Kaufman has long been an advocate for restoring voting rights to felons. Which is he why he dashed off a testy letter to the editor about my column on felon voting rights, which ran a week ago today.

Jim Brown and Sneezer roll into the Cancun Cantina Toy Run at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds as merely two of more than 5,000 bikers in attendance. But here and at dozens of other public gatherings throughout the year, the pair often steals the show. Brown, 51, arrives this November morning in the customary fashion, with Sneezer, his 9-year-old Jack Russell terrier, strapped to his chest in a harness he has modified. She sports a full set of motorcycle gear as comprehensive as his own: leather chaps, riding goggles and a tiny helmet Brown made out of a soup ladle.

CHICAGO - Hasim Rahman and Monte Barrett stepped off the scales at yesterday's weigh-in for their heavyweight fight and engaged in a staredown for about 30 seconds. It was Rahman who broke it off, laughing and giving Barrett a friendly pat on his left biceps with his right hand - the same one he plans to use to separate Barrett from his senses tomorrow night. Barrett stepped from the stage, and, on spotting Rahman's wife, Crystal, and, son, Hasim Jr., gave each a hug. Last year, Barrett spent the Fourth of July at the Rahmans' Las Vegas home.