Don't Fear the Reaper: New Facebook App Lets You Announce Your Death

Facebook has allowed billions of people to stay in contact with family and friends in ways many never thought possible. In fact, you can now even announce your own death on the social media website... from beyond the grave!

A new application now available for download called If I Die gives members a chance to write their final status update in advance. After downloading and installing the app, members then select three friends as "trustees" who will all have to verify that you've "departed to greener pastures".  Then, you will be able to record a video message or announcement that will be published to your Facebook or twitter feed, letting friends, family, acquaintances and people you've never met in person before know of your untimely fate.

The idea seems to be catching on, as more than 7000 people have downloaded the app in the first few days that it has been available. So, make sure you start checking all your Facebook friends' status updates everyday...just to make sure... As they say, there's an app for that...

The Satanic Verses Redux: Salman Rushdie Gets Social Media Smack Down

"With that $10 million price still on my head, I have to remember to stop doing controversial things..."

It seems bestselling author Salman Rushdie courts controversy and trouble, wherever he goes!

The 64-year-old author of The Satanic Verses has become embroiled in a social media scandal featuring much-younger reality star and model Devorah Rose. The unlikely pair struck up a friendship on Facebook, with Rushdie waxing romantic over Rose's beautiful attributes, even going so far as to plan a "hook up" while the writer was in New York City, where Devorah resides.

Apparently, Rushdie developed cold feet over maintaining a relationship with the twenty-something model, sending her a "Dear John" letter via Facebook. When journalists got wind of the aborted May-December romance between the two, Rushdie proceeded to deny any claims of a relationship with Rose, telling online media site Page Six that he was "mortified" to be connected with her in any way!

Needless to say, this didn't sit very well with Devorah, who immediately released screencaps of the online conversations she had with Rushdie to various gossip sites, where Rushdie spouted flowery prose festooned with smiley faces! "Never let someone paint you in a negative light," Devorah posted on her Twitter feed regarding the social media smack down. "Not me not today."

Rushdie famously went into hiding during the late-1980s and early-90s after publishing his masterpiece The Satanic Verses when the Supreme Leader of Iran the Ayatollah Khomeini  placed a multimillion dollar price tag on his head, calling for his assassination for the book's irreverent depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.