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This summer's crop of movie blockbusters are already shattering box office records and driving up attendance at the nation's movie theaters, giving big returns to major Hollywood studios and theater owners before the official start of the summer popcorn movie season this Memorial Day weekend.

Walt Disney Studios' (DIS) "The Avengers" has already surpassed $1 billion in international ticket sales since hitting theaters earlier this month. The superhero flick smashed opening box office records, raking in $200.3 million at North American theaters to beat out the "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2."

"The Avengers" has already become the fourth highest grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Disney's biggest movie ever. It's expected to vanquish its box-office rivals yet again this weekend, beating out the highly-anticipated "Men in Black III" starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin.

While "The Avengers" has held on to the #1

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Serial tech entrepreneur and professor Steve Blank argues that Facebook and the "social media" craze are ruining Silicon Valley's innovation machine.

How?

By making venture capitalists so greedy that they're only funding companies that could be worth billions of dollars in a couple of years.

In the old days, Blank says, venture capitalists used to be much more patient. They would fund true "technology" companies that they knew would take 5 to 10 years to reach maturity.

But nowadays, Blank argues, VC's have become so intoxicated by the lure of instant riches from the likes of Facebook and Instagram that they're mostly funding companies that have a chance to be worth billions overnight.

Of course, Blank also concedes that this is always what Silicon Valley has done--moved from one investing fad to another. The Valley has been the country's high-tech innovation engine for nearly a century now, and the types of companies VC's are obsessed with has

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Congress has just over a month to pass a $106 billion transportation bill that would pave the way for new highways, railways and bridges in this country. Lawmakers are making progress on the legislation; however, there is one major hold up: the Keystone Pipeline. If Congress cannot agree to a deal by June 30, its authority to spend that money will run out.

President Barack Obama rejected the controversial pipeline in January. He said he'd veto any legislation containing authorization to expedite the Keystone Pipeline until more research was done to fully assess the environmental consequences of the project, which would stretch 1,661-miles from Canada's oil tar sands through North Dakota to refineries located on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Republicans, on the other hand, are pushing to get the $7.8 billion TransCanada (TRP) project underway as soon as possible. They say the pipeline will have a positive impact on U.S. jobs and gasoline prices.

TransCanada