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Lane Goodwin, 13, a small-town boy who won a huge Facebook following for his thumbs-up attitude about his cancer, has lost his battle with the disease. He died Wednesday night, eliciting an outpouring from his heartbroken followers. The announcement of Lane's death came on his Facebook page, which had 369,000 followers as of Thursday. The announcement said the boy from Beech Grove, Ky., who loved fishing and soccer had "gained his angel wings. " Lane was an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan, and some Cardinals fans held up signs in support of Lane during the baseball playoffs.

Whether it has been investigating a possible ticket-less system for entry to the Wells Fargo Center or an in-arena motion sensor to detect which side of the building is cheering louder than others, the Flyers always have been interested in using technology to enhance the fan experience. This year, they've found a way to connect with fans without having them make the trip to South Philadelphia. The Flyers, unlike many professional sports franchises, are connecting with their most loyal fans through Facebook with the help of Buddy Media and another Comcast-Spectacor venture, Paciolan.

Movie fans are spending some face time with a story about the founders of Facebook. The Social Network , director David Fincher 's drama about the quarrelsome creation of the online juggernaut, made its debut as the No. 1 weekend film, with $23 million. Rory Bruer , Sony's head of distribution, said The Social Network had a good shot at becoming a $100 million hit. The weekend's other new wide releases had weak starts. Horror flick Case 39 , starring Renee Zellweger , opened at No. 7, with $5.35 million, and the vampire tale Let Me In made its debut at No. 8, with $5.3 million.

By day, director of business development Ryan Derfler oversees 50 men and women who guide trolley, walking, and train tours for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. During off hours, Derfler works as a model. Blessed with classically handsome looks, Derfler's portfolio caught the notice of Center City's Reinhard Agency five years ago. He's been snapped donning Calvin Klein clothes, climbing an extension ladder, and biking with Sidi shoes. Nowadays, his resume is bulging with stints paying from $150 to $1,000.

- Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg, 26, the founder of the world's biggest virtual community, Facebook - which connects more than 500 million members in 207 countries - is a reclusive, abrasive, rude, sarcastic, angry young man who'd rather write computer code than talk to another human being. That, at least, is the Mark Zuckerberg we meet in the season's most highly anticipated Oscar contender, David Fincher's The Social Network , a tense, fast-moving, revelatory look at the prehistory of Facebook, which in seven years went from a dorm-room prank to a multibillion-dollar corporation.

You're in labor. Is there an app for that? There ought to be, based on the information gleaned through a new survey of more than 1,000 pregnant women conducted by American Baby magazine and Good Books, publisher of the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. Fifty-one percent of respondents planned to record the birth - as it takes place - through social media, with 42 percent planning to post regular Facebook status updates and 9 percent planning to tweet about the experience.

There apparently is a limit to what you can write on Facebook. The District Attorney's Office said Monday that it has charged a blogger, Joshua Scott Albert, with three counts each of criminal solicitation to commit murder, terroristic threats and harassment for Facebook pages he created calling for the murders of two top law-enforcement officials here and another page that supported two alleged cop killers. Tasha Jamerson, D.A.'s Office spokeswoman, said the charges were approved over the weekend and that authorities are looking for Albert, 26. Albert, a former Philadelphia restaurant worker and creator of the infamous Staph Meal blog, had created a Facebook page called "I Support Chancier McFarland & Rafael Jones" - the two alleged cop-killers who gunned down Officer Moses Walker Jr., who was off-duty, during an attempted robbery in North Philly on Aug. 18. That page was removed Aug. 26. (A new page with that same name has since been created, but it is not immediately clear if Albert created it. As of about 12 p.m. Monday, it had just one comment on it that said, "Take this junk off!"

  A 22-year-old Lansdale man was arrested Monday and charged with statutory rape, indecent assault, corruption of minors, and related offenses after an adult relative found disturbing posts on the 12-year-old victim's Facebook page, investigators said. Sgt. Alex Kromdyk identified the suspect as Lafonsa Perry of the 100 block of Penn Street. Kromdyk said the Facebook posts indicated that Perry had sex with the girl when she was 11. During a forensic interview with Mission Kids, a nonprofit that helps children deal with law enforcement officials, the girl said Perry had given her marijuana while the two were in his bedroom and engaged with her in sexual intercourse.

Apple Inc. has 1 Infinite Loop; Genentech Inc. has 1 DNA Way. But Facebook Inc. now lays claim to Silicon Valley's premier vanity address: 1 Hacker Way. After journeying from a Harvard University dorm room to a rented house in Palo Alto, Calif., to a series of temporary corporate offices it quickly outgrew, the eight-year-old social-networking giant has set down permanent roots just in time for its initial public offering. Facebook, the hottest company to come out of the region since Google Inc., filed papers this week to sell its stock to the public.

A20-YEAR-OLD Kensington man is accused of using Facebook to threaten witnesses who were to testify against his friends in a weapons case. Freddie Henriquez allegedly obtained a witness' statement and posted images of it on Facebook, accompanied with a caption that said "RATS. " Henriquez also posted other threatening messages on Facebook, authorities say. In an August post provided by prosecutors, he wrote, "KILL RATS point blank period. " Those threats came after four of his associates were arrested in February for an alleged conspiracy involving straw purchases of firearms.