One of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings in recent history could become a reality this week. The Wall Street Journal reports via unnamed sources that Facebook could file the papers to start publicly trading its stock as early as Wednesday, February 1. The article does add that the Wednesday filing date could be pushed back with some of the company's executives thinking about holding off for a few weeks before sending the papers into the US Security and Exchange Commission.

The article also reports that Facebook is close to picking Morgan Stanley over Goldman Sachs as its lead underwriter. Morgan Stanley was the underwriter behind a number of tech-based IPOs in 2011, including LinkedIn, the Facebook-based game publisher Zynga and more.

When its stock does go up for sale the total worth of the social networking service could be as high as $100 billion.

People like to share everything on social media, and that apparently includes the crimes they commit. The Guardian reports that because of our love of sharing, the FBI is working on building a tool that will allow them to monitor sites like Twitter and Facebook more effectively in order to help fight crime.

By decoding the publically posted social media messages -- “clapped him off the surfboard” is code for shooting the opposition, for example -- law enforcement is able to identify criminals. According to the report, the FBI recently arrested over “40 members of two feuding New York gangs,” and social media was a big part of the process.

The FBI has posted a 12 page Request for Information (RFI) detailing all of the requirements of the requested system.