What do steaks, Facebook Connect, and Arianna Huffington have in common?

I clicked through today on a link for the United Steaks of America (thanks, SwissMiss!) and immediately after losing my appetite, I noticed the unusual placement and treatment of the Facebook Connect link.

Facebook Connect button appears as the first item on the global navigation bar, with a tooltip explaining its purpose.

The Facebook Connect button is the first item on the global site nav, appearing even before “Home”.  It’s accompanied by an attention-getting tooltop, which vaguely explains something called “HuffPost Social News.”

Since Facebook Connect is normally one way of logging into a site, I’m curious about why they wouldn’t position Facebook Connect in the workflow for signing in.

Changes to the global nav are normally big decisions, and this one seems odd to me.  Any ideas on why they might have chosen this unusual (and hyper-prominent) implementation?

Even the footer mimics the treatment from the top of the page.

See also

1. Active Nav States: Which page am I on?
2. Setting User Expectations for Video Using Thumbnails
3. Would you like some tabs with that?