The National Venture Capital Association has completed its 2011 census. Now we all know the business of doling out money to tech startups is a pasty one—right? we're all clear on this, yes?—but the association this year trumpets "signs of increasing ethnic diversity." So, take a wild guess at the combined percentage…

Among potential boyfriends, Selena Gomez picked Justin Bieber. Among iPhone apps that turn pictures into postcards, the singer/actress picked "Postcards on the Run," joining a $750,000 investment round, she just announced. It appears her taste might have failed her, hard as that is to believe.

Investors hitting on investees, dates disguised as business meetings, founders' wives getting hit on: The boys club of tech investing sounds barely more enlightened than the casting couches of Hollywood. And now one lecherous venture capitalist risks becoming the poster boy for tech's sleazier side.

Silicon Valley's loathsome side is ready for its closeup again, judging from the recent press. You know, the side that says it deserves a tech bubble even as it insists none is forming; the side that's greedy but pretends money doesn't matter; and the side that dresses up clubby insularity as a virtue.

Elevation Partners, which counts U2 frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge as investors, has seen its November 2009 investment in Facebook more than quadruple. And the gains are poised to grow even more.

Foursquare, the pointless check-in service with barely any revenue, is now worth more than six times what it was a year ago. Or so say the venture capitalists who just gave the hugely unprofitable company an infusion of cash.

Pandora just took a $30 million loan ahead of its IPO. That's on top of $86 million it took in venture capital and accrued unpaid dividends. Luckily for Pandora's users, the indispensable internet radio service can't be killed, debts notwithstanding.

A new investment in Facebook by the venture capital firm General Atlantic puts Facebook's worth at $65 billion. Just last month, Facebook was valued at a measly $50 billion by Goldman Sachs. What happened in a month to make Facebook worth $15 billion more? They probably saw Mark Zuckerberg chilling with Obama and…

The secret venture capital cabal Mike Arrington faced off against in San Francisco bar last night might be in serious trouble. But the conspiracy's hapless incompetence is actually rather comical.

Peter Thiel, Facebook's first outside investor, is moving his volatile hedge fund back to California. Clarium Capital moved to New York in its boom days of fall 2008; a humble return to Silicon Valley may help break the resulting jinx.

Todd Davis is in the identity-protection business, which is why it's especially ridiculous his own identity has been stolen 13 times. And it's not the first dumb thing his company LifeLock has done.

Russia's Digital Sky Technologies might be the toast of Silicon Valley, but the investment firm gives the Russian founder of Chatroulette the creeps. Sometimes it takes a teenager to say the obvious, rude things adults can't bring themselves to utter.

Between "acting" gigs, Ashton Kutcher occasionally promotes social media enterprises by throwing the weight of his celebrity behind them. Previously he helped make Twitter. Now it's location-based network Foursquare. Except this time he stands to make a mint.

Startup founder Sam Lessin's reputation as an entrepreneur was already overshadowed by his partying in Cyprus and very wealthy father. Now a key investor has spilled the real reason he invested in Lessin's Drop.io. D'oh.

The hottest fantasy in Silicon Valley involves a big, hot... tech bubble. Facebook and Yelp supposedly want one, so they can IPO in 2010; even Penthouse publisher FriendFinder Networks wants to go public, despite a sex harassment scandal.

Tom Perkins has been a barometer of plutocratic spending amid economic meltdown. That barometer is now signaling a comeback, if only for the real estate market, as Perkins scoops up a royal penthouse atop the San Francisco skyline.

The Brits at the BBC checked in on the Silicon Valley economy, and found this horrific scene: People quitting perfectly good jobs and investing perfectly good money under the delusion that boom times are here again. Ouch.