In the bluntly titled, “What happens online when you die?,” Life Insurance Finder lists the various policies that Web sites and social media sites have in place to handle a user’s death.

They present interesting stats such as the fact that three Facebook users die every minute for a total of 1.78 million Facebook users in 2011.

All the data that you have created on these Web sites belongs to them once you pass on. It’s usually up to your family to present proof of death or an attorney’s order to get the information back into the hands of your family.

They do all this to remind people that it’s important to set up plans for how your data should be handled when you die. You don’t want just anybody digging through your emails to find dirt on your after your passing.

Here’s a handy video that shows what Web sites do with your information after you die:

She went home to google her hometown; what she found chilled her blood and confirmed her suspicion. A photo appeared on the screen, a photo of a convicted killer along with details of his horrendous acts. She was, needless to say, shrouded in fear.

One of the country’s most sadistic killers had been released from prison after serving 20 years for violently bashing in the head of a former girlfriend’s son, in front of the other children.

This man was going by a different name now, but the image depicted the very same man her sister was dating; there was no mistaking it. Another detail unknown to her sister, the man was on the child protection register.

Upon the truth of the matter, a family representative revealed that they “still felt betrayed by the system”. Lawyers at Firth, McAlpine and Scott said this about ex-convicts ability changing their names:

“The family was amazed that someone could change their name and just blend back into the community like he had.”

An investigation revealed that the man changed his name while behind bars by deed poll before 2008 when the law changed. Since then no one is allowed to change their names while on the child protection register unless they appeal to Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione. It’s not said how many have applied for a name change, but police reveal that a total of 5 changes have been permitted. A police spokesperson was quoted saying:

“These matters related to applications where the name change was to the name the person has been known by all of their life and under the name for which they were arrested and charged. However, their birth certificate records the name of their biological father.”

Surprisingly while the police had knowledge of the man’s new identity, they failed to inform the public as well as the family.

Upon release from prison the man moved to a halfway house, eventually he met his new girlfriend; gaining her trust, not revealing his dark secret; ashamed or not. She gave him a job and he soon integrated himself into their lives, eventually being introduced to the woman’s children.

After a return from vacation, the sister of the woman revealed everything to the police and now the man faces up to 5 years in jail for violating the Child Protection Offenders Registration Act for allegedly being within the presence of minors for the consecutive period of 14 days or more and not reporting his actions.

Business Insider is reporting that Appleton was flying an “experimental fixed wing single engine Lancair that crashed shortly before 9 a.m.”

Micron’s stock is halted in lieu of the news.

Micron issued a press release:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Appleton, Micron (Nasdaq:MU) Chairman and CEO, passed away this morning in a small plane accident in Boise. He was 51.

Our hearts go out to his wife, Dalynn, his children and his family during this tragic time.
Steve’s passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large.

The company expects to provide additional information later today.

We’ll have more once the company makes a proper statement.

Somewhere, somehow, on the Internet today, #RIPSouljaBoy began trending. People were obviously concerned for the rapper’s well being. Well, some people were concerned. Some users took this opportunity to make fun of the thought to be dead rapper. I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief though when the news came that the famous rapper was nowhere near dead. In fact, he is still alive and kicking.

The Twitter reactions to this latest hoax were priceless. When the news came out that he was not dead, the hashtag took off as a means to poke fun at the rapper.

Necrotizing fasciitis? Got it.
Cornelia de Lange syndrome? Got it.
Rabies? Got it.
Werner syndrome? Got it.
Brocha’s aphasia? Got it.
The clap? Got it.

Anyways, you already know this. Googling medical information is the most counter-productive activity one can do in their free time and the careful art of diagnosis should best be left to medical professionals. Now, however, a group of researchers in California have created a website, eprognosis.org, that will help doctors predict the a patient’s life expectancy.

Before you start ticking your personal doomsday clock closer to midnight, I want to point out that the website is intended to be used with older patients. Lindsey Yourman, MD, explains that the website is intended to assist elders make more informed decisions about their treatment. As an example, she says, “Some older patients may not be offered cancer screening due to their age, but a prognostic index may suggest they are healthy and likely to benefit from cancer screening because of long life expectancy.”

According to Science Blog, the website was created after “the first systematic review of prognostic indices used to calculate a patient’s life expectancy.” In addition to the typical data you might expect to be included in such a prognosis, like age and medical history, the ability to carry out tasks associated with daily living “was found to be statistically significant in predicting life expectancy” of all of the indices the researchers reviewed. The report goes on to explain the three criteria that the researchers used to compute the prediction for life expectancy:

The first criterion is accuracy, which is the degree to which predicted outcomes match observed outcomes, said Smith, who is also a Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics and an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at UCSF.

The second criterion is what the researchers term transportability – the extent to which an index was tested independently in patients with essentially different characteristics from the patient population in which it was first tested. “The more transportable the index, the more generalizable it is to other types of patients,” said Smith.

The third criterion, said Smith, is applicability: “Are the patients in which this index was studied similar to my own patient in key characteristics, such as age, functional impairments and co-morbidities?”

The ultimate goal, Yourman says, is for doctors to do their best “to make sure that we help older patients make informed decisions about whether they will benefit from a treatment or not.”

As if to preclude any of your morbid tendencies to visit the website in order to plan your death party, you probably won’t find much in the way of tangible information: the eprognosis.org is designed for doctors and thus uses a medical vernacular that is probably over the head of the layperson. Just as well – if the website was in a medical language average people could understand, you, me and everyone else we know would be awake countless nights trying to decipher when we can expect to die. Since you probably won’t get that information out of this website, take in a deep breath and enjoy your stay here amongst the living.

The losses never kept him from trying, as he ran for governor five times, U.S. representative twice, and attorney general. Along with his views, Galbraith was known for his candor and character. He was someone who wasn’t beneath holding his own political sign on the side of the road, as most Lexington, KY denizens could see him at the Versailles Rd/Man O’ War intersection holding up his own signs personally. The next moment, he would be riding around in a hemp powered car with Willie Nelson.

If you’re looking for perfect examples of Galbraith’s character, take a look at these two YouTube videos. As someone who’s met the man personally, they provide a perfect reflection.

Oh, just in case you’re wondering, Willie Nelson endorsed him in the prior election.

I was completely floored today that I found out about his death, not through a news article or through a friend calling, but on Twitter. The Galbraith following was represented enough in Twitter today that it was a trending topic nationally for a good period of time. Here’s what many people had to say in remembrance.

Galbraith was the perfect example of “I might not agree with him, but I respect he doesn’t shy away from what he really believes”. Which can be summed up in this quote, “People say, ‘How can you be a practicing attorney and smoke marijuana?’ My response to that is: ‘Hey, if slavery were still legal, I’d be heading the underground railroad. If the Vietnam War were still going on, I’d be out in the streets demonstrating. If segregation were still intact, I’d be sitting at a lunch counter somewhere.”

R.I.P.

Realistically, with the number of times that Castro has been declared dead and then alive again, he might very well be the most successful communist vampire ever. Regardless of whether Castro was dead or not did not deter Tweeters from taking to the Twitter.

He’s dead! He’s alive! He’s dead! He’s alive! Basically, rinse and repeat those sentiments and you have summarized sixty years of political speculation on the subject. It’s worth noting that Wikileaks Argentina repeatedly posted that Castro was dead despite contrary reports that he was still alive. No word on yet on why they’re so insistent that he’s dead but as of 54 minute ago they were still saying this is confirmed. Either they’ve got the scoop of the decade or they’re really betting the farm on the hope that they’re right.

Since 2011 was such a bad year for dictators around the world, it would be fitting that Castro would want 2012 all to himself. Why start sharing in death when that virtue was roundly ignored during his life? Alas, such questions are for idle minds as Fidel Castro is actually still among the living. At least, that’s what Cuba’s official blog is saying. In fact, according to the post, upon being told of his premature demise Castro “studied, analyzed and then laughed at the rumors on Twitter.” Good to see the old bearded one’s enjoying the exaggerated reports of his death.

In fact, what makes this less funny is that Euronews has speculated that the Castro death hoax may even be a devious method to spread some malware. So, while it’s fun to continue speculate on the death of Cuba’s iconic despot, enjoy with caution as you might end up getting your computer pwned in the process.

O’Neal’s rep, Matt Frost, released the following statement:

It is with terrible sadness we must report that Patrice O’Neal has passed away this morning at 7:00am due to the complications of the stroke he suffered on October 19. Many of us have lost a close and loved friend; all of us have lost a true comic genius. His mother, who was also his best friend, was at his side. Patrice is survived by his wife, Vondecarlo; his step daughter Aymilyon, sister Zinder, and his mother Georgia. The family wishes to thank all of the fans and friends who have expressed an outpouring of love and support for Patrice these past weeks. We ask that you please respect the family’s request for privacy at this difficult time.

O’Neal will be remembered for his confrontational style of humor and his numerous appearances and specials. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family. If you’d like to read more about the death of Patrice O’Neal, visit FamousDead.com.

As I’m sure you can imagine, news of O’Neal’s death spread through Twitter very quickly, below are some selected tweets:

Up to this point little was known about Zhitomirskiy’s death, but it now appears that he committed suicide. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that a source colse to Diaspora told CNNMoney that Zhitomirskiy took his own life.

The Tribune confirmed with the San Francisco Police Department a police report that officers responded to the 700 block of Treat Ave. around 8:10 PM Saturday. They were dispatched after receiving calls about a possible suicide. “It appears to be a suicide … however, the medical examiner’s office will make the final decision“, said SFPD Officer Alvie Esparza. It’s likely to be several weeks before we know for certain that Zhitomirskiy did in fact commit suicide. If you’d like to read more about Zhitomirskiy, you can visit FamousDead.com.

If you’re unfamiliar with Zhitomirskiy, he was one of the four co-founders of Diaspora, a free personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service.

Below is a video of the four co-founders discussing Diaspora:

Diaspora: Personally Controlled, Do-It-All, Distributed Open-Source Social Network from daniel grippi on Vimeo.

Breaking into the music industry in 1987, Heavy D and the Boyz had success with their first album Living Large. The group arguably had their biggest hit in 1991 with Now That We Found Love, you can see the video below:

One of the last tweets that Heavy D tweeted out was him paying respects to “Smokin” Joe Frazier.

As I’m sure you can imagine, news of the death of Heavy D spread around Twitter very quickly, below are some selected tweets:

You can read more about the death of Heavy D at FamousDead.com