The New York Times reports on a phenomenon that is becoming more and more common as the average age of Facebook users rises: those times when an algorithm prompts you to reach out and connect with someone who is no longer alive.

Facebook says it has been grappling with how to handle the ghosts in its machine but acknowledges that it has not found a good solution.

“It’s a very sensitive topic,” said Meredith Chin, a company spokeswoman, “and, of course, seeing deceased friends pop up can be painful.” Given the site’s size, “and people passing away every day, we’re never going to be perfect at catching it,” she added.

This phenomenon is not limited to baby boomers and older. Reading the article became quite eerie when I suddenly remembered that I also have a deceased Facebook friend. Facebook does have a method of dealing with profiles of those who have died, though it needs improving.

Doggone it, The Social Network: As much as we want to avoid the bloghype surrounding you and your Ben Mezrich-inspired sensationalism about the founding of Facebook, you and your surprisingly strong cast and trailers just keep forcing us to take note. The full trailer for the film dropped today, and, well, it looks surprisingly good.

See for yourself below:

A July report published by a Chinese government-affiliated think tank denounced U.S. and other Western authorities for using social networking sites like Facebook to incite political unrest, and recommended that such sites be investigated more closely.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) cited unnamed U.S. officials who reportedly said that social networks are an “invaluable tool” for overthrowing foreign governments. Yet for all its unnecessary paranoia over covert cyber foreign policy tactics, the report titled “Development of China’s New Media” also made some interesting observations about user privacy and viral marketing that echo many Internet users’ same fears: that the Big Brother of the future may not be our governments, but private corporations.

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NBC Universal’s Oxygen Media recently conducted a survey, asking 1,605 women versed and immersed in social media about their habits with Facebook, Twitter and other such services. And while you would expect there to be some level of addiction there, the results are actually quite staggering.

Of the over 1,600 women surveyed, 34 percent stated that they check Facebook literally first thing in the morning, before going to brush their teeth.

This morning, the blogs were abuzz about what appeared to be the second trailer for The Social Network, the upcoming sensationalist thriller about the sensational and thrilling founding of Facebook, based on the Ben Mezrich novel of the same name. Well, it looks like the second Facebook movie trailer just might be (takes off sunglasses) a Fake-book.

Not long after Twitter was chastised for overstating its security measures and letting many high profile accounts get hacked, Facebook decided to make sure that it couldn’t suffer the same fate. A challenge was issued across the land (to a specific group of employees). They were to do everything they could to try to hack into the Facebook administration functions. Specifically, one engineer Pedram Keyani was behind the challenge, and the task assigned was specifically to get into the administration functions through his personal Facebook account.

After a couple weeks, the team of employees had, indeed, hacked into his personal Facebook account. By hacking his home network with a rogue WiFi SSID, the team was able to get several of his usernames and passwords. It’s impressive that they were able to hack into the account of a site engineer who not only knew it was coming, but arranged for its coming.

Some time late last night, the largest BP protest page on Facebook, “Boycott BP,” went down without warning or explanation. In addition to serving the obvious purpose of uniting people in protest, the page was a forum wherein Facebook users could share their personal stories, along with photos and videos. It was more than just a place for people to get angry, it was a place for those justifiably angry people to pool information and help each other cope.

And like most major movements on Facebook these days, the page gained traction in the mainstream media. Its creator, Lee Perkins, was even recently interviewed by Diane Sawyer.

No explanation had been given for the page’s take-down, but some obvious theories arose. People thought it could be an attempt to curb the flow of images, video, and other information coming out of the Gulf to avoid major panic or excessive overreaction. Others suspected the movement was taking hold too strongly, and that Facebook didn’t want to be seen as any way responsible for a real BP boycott.

Well, Facebook just released a statement which may clear things up:

If you’re one of those Facebook users with parents or weird cousins that inundate your wall with Mafia Wars invitations, start whimpering, because the end is nigh: The gangster game, developed by Zynga, will adapted into a full-fledged movie. American media mogul Ted Field and Radar Pictures, known for such precious treasures as Swing Vote and The Invention of Lying, will be in charge of bringing it to cinematic life.

Six flags has done some pretty off-the-wall shenanigans in the name of self promotion, but this one has to be the most ill-advised of the bunch. Welcome to Mascot Park, the latest advertising campaign and Facebook game from the marketing geniuses over at Six Flags. In Mascot Park, where the mayor is apparently a pimp bear with a creepy entourage, you can make your own creepy avatar mascot and have it perform shows on a variety of themed stages. There’s the Space Stadium and Fright Fest and other zany locations.

And this would all be well and good. But then the pain infliction and bodily harm come into play.

We’ve got a long way to go before David Fincher’s The Social Network releases to theaters in March of 2011, and between then an now there will be plenty of time for general opinion of Facebook to wax and wane; internet opinion flipping much faster than film studios could ever hope to emulate.

But for now, the teaser trailer for The Social Network would like you to know that the founding of Facebook was SERIOUS BUSINESS.

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