Just after midnight on Monday, GW's Hatchet reported that senior Royal Gethers had gone missing. D.C. Police and the university had launched an investigation. Gethers was out of sight for a little more than a day.

Friends told the Hatchet that Gethers wasn't the type of guy to just disappear. He was always texting, etc. When he failed to meet up with a friend on Sunday, and didn't text in an apology, people got worried.

Friends started a Facebook group. Others planned to fly to D.C. to help with the search effort. Flyers started going up.

"Jazz Hayes" wrote into the Facebook group:

"GOODMORNING TEAM. LETS BE PRODUCTIVE AND PRECISE TODAY. FLYERS GO OUT, AND LOCAL NEWSTATIONS ARE CONTACTED. I WILL PAPER THIS ENTIRE DAMN CITY."

And this from Hayes: "SEARCH TEAM POST YOUR TWITTERS SO WE MAY STAY UPDATED AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER!"

And then, um, Gethers showed up on campus Monday morning.

Read More "GW Student Goes ‘Missing,’ Creates One More Unnecessary Facebook Group" »

Good on Bsom, who today faithfully noted that page A1 of the Washington Post features yet another Facebook story. That's the 15th time Facebook has claimed this turf, by Bsom's count. He's got all the links to back it up, too.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Jacob Botter

Wednesday morning’s roundup is brought to you by the young and restless intern, who is refusing  to write about any Social-Security-sucking, ozone-depleting, spotlight-hogging baby boomers today.

While walking past a convenience store last  week, I noticed a sign that borderline panicked: “Get your vanilla cigarettes before they are banned!” The sign nearly inspired my non-smoking self into stockpiling like it was 1999, but it appears I am too late. The FDA has banned the sale of flavored tobacco, three months after President Barack Obama agreed to let the FDA regulate tobacco products. What’s so wrong with having a little “Warm Winter Toffee” with your lung cancer? According to the New York Times, 17-year-olds are three times more likely than those over 25 to smoke the flavored cigarettes.

Read More "Morning Roundup: The Young and Restless Edition" »

Via Dan Snyder's message board, ExtremeSskins: The Redskins have just broke the crust on a new Facebook page.

A random sampling of the comments, sics and all:

Mark: no one did thier job 8 hours ago

Wayne: Hall and Smoot need to learn how to wrap-up and stop ski-diving and the tackles. If they are scared to hit find somebody that will!!!!!! 4 hours ago

Mikhiel: They looked a hot mess!!! but they looked horrible as a team! I would definitely come up withsome major changes more than just qb like we tried during the summer! Yesterday at 5:18pm

(AFTER THE JUMP: And this is what Snyder’s FRIENDS are saying? Snyder buys Facebook? Federer does Don Beyer no favors? Kiddie Bias™ on the chessboard? Huge week for Asian Bias™ on the links? Back on track on the Road to 100 Losses™?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: How Long Before Dan Snyder Buys Facebook?" »

Darrow Montgomery, Washington City Paper's amazing staff photographer, just alerted me to a new Facebook phishing scam. While using social media to spread the good word of WCP, Darrow received an instant message from an old friend. Said old friend claimed that she was stranded in London after having been robbed at gunpoint of all identification and forms of payment.

But Darrow is smart and wasn't about to go wiring money across the pond. A call was made to his wife, who knows the stranded woman, and who was then able to verify that THE WOMAN IS NOT ACTUALLY IN LONDON; she's in Georgetown.

Turns out her FB doppleganger has been hitting people up allllll day. The proper authorities have been contacted.

Don't get scammed, y'all!

Good morning, City Desk readers!  Remember those lovely events and people we tried to forget about in the past few years, among them press secretaries, judicial nominations, and transit accidents?  They're all back to rear their ugly heads this morning, so let's commence with the news rundown.

• Yesterday afternoon, City Desk posted the latest WaPo article about the Metro crash, which basically announced that circuits on four of the five lines have failed to detect the presence of trains.  The 6 pm newscasts featured commentary from a variety of concerned commuters and so to quell their concerns, Metro GM John Catoe and Councilman Jim Graham held a press conference announcing that the Post got the story wrong.  The system is safe, says Catoe, and the article is a gross misstatement of facts.  Watch WUSA's interview with Catoe - he could be a dreidel with the way he's spinning this new information.

Swine flu, social networks, and the Secret Service after the jump.  Plus, a new alternative to saving the Nats! Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Just When We Forgot Edition" »

Ask Jesse Rauch if the beloved, now bereaved, Screen on the Green has a shot at resurrection and you'll get a resounding, "Yes we can!"

"We will have Screen on the Green this summer," Rauch said in an interview with Washington City Paper. "And if we don’t, we’re gonna have 16,000 people with DVD players and iPhones sitting on the mall, in a flash mob or something. We’ll find a way."

Read More "‘Yes We Can!’ Save Screen on the Green" »

A crusty newspaper editor, let's say he's in his late 50s, is forced to take a buyout. Faced with some time on his hands, he gets on Facebook to a) post photos of his small, blond granddaughter and b) network to find a job. A first cousin, close to him in age, friends him and starts "suggesting" he friend others on the family tree. Crusty Newspaper Editor (CNE) declines to do so. Later, he updates his status with a sad tale of leaving an afternoon ballgame to go to a job fair where no one wants a crusty newspaper editor's skills.

The problem? Fixated First Cousin (FFC) is stuck on the unfriended relatives and sees this status update as an opportunity to dig at Crusty Newspaper Editor. Second problem? Both of them are old and don't know when to take it offline.

Trainwreck exchange after the jump.

Read More "When Facebook Goes Wrong" »

JDLand has her own thoughts on the allegedly slow development around Nationals Park (including both Southeast and Southwest sides). She uses the Post's archives to make the point that the MCI Center didn't exactly create instant redevelopment. [She doesn't use those same archives to chart all the failed promises city leaders have made concerning Nationals Park; nor does she use those same archives to chart how much money the city has dumped into the project].

Another argument she could have made: The problem with all the civic boosters behind Nationals Park is that they are having to sell one of the ugliest pieces of city real estate. The MCI Center was built in a downtown neighborhood with obvious strengths that Nationals Park does not have. MCI Center had Chinatown, MLK Library and other civic destination spots like say the old DCRA building (ha), the courthouses, and police headquarters. Nationals Park was built in a decimated spot with almost zero charm. Anyway, I posted my two cents on the subject yesterday.

Misadventures in D.C. folds up its blog, blames Twitter and Facebook (like real media people!). They write: "The weird thing, of course, is that blogging now seems... well, so QUAINT. So old-fashioned, this idea of taking the time to construct paragraphs of text, telling a story, fleshing out an idea or thought through the process of writing about it. We've been reduced to brief one-sentence status updates (or worse, in the case of Twitter: 140 characters). It's easier to stay in touch than ever before. Yet our communication becomes more superficial with each sign of 'progress.'"

Borderstan collects early April crime stats for Borderstan.

And Now, Anacostia gives its blessing to Cherry Blast.

Bureaucrat310 mourns the crowding of Ben's Chili Bowl now that they've spotted tour buses parked outside the D.C. institution. There's tension between the old men and the tourists:

"I was at Ben's Chili Bowl last night with an out-of-town friend who wanted to "visit the place where Obama eats." It was 2am, crowded and loud! I sat at the counter next to an elderly black man and about three or four of his buddies. Yes, an old guy out past 2am! We'd already ordered as a white college-aged man started shouting his order behind me. The man, for some unknown reason, stuck his arm in between me and the elderly black man to rest his hand on the counter. He accidentally brushed against the black man who did not enjoy being touched - a small argument ensued..."

The 42 taps out a thoughtful rundown of area sports teams and events.

As I selected my senior yearbook photo via the world wide interwebs this week, I took a minute to think about the difference between the presentation of those images today versus previous generations.

Today, photography companies are offering many ways to make yourself look better. There are options for retouching and removing scars, tan lines, moles, tattoos, piercings, and stray hairs (just $40 a pose!). Being a poor college student, I'll take my photo with the flaws, thank you very much.

But it got me thinking about the generations of students before me who probably would have paid that money because those yearbook photos were the defining photo of their collegiate career. The artificially posed snapshot in time was the photo that their college friends would remember them by for all eternity.

Those photos sometimes gave us a peek into what a person was actually like at the time the photo was taken.

Take John Slattery. Sure, now he's the silver-haired, womanizing, suave Roger Sterling of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency.

But before he was a Mad Man, Slattery was a young adult.

Read More "The Evolution of the Yearbook Photo: From Ed Liddy to John Slattery to Now" »

Nora Greer, a 55-year-old woman who lives in Barnaby Woods, posted a message to the Cleveland Park Listserv in the hope of finding a kidney donor. It reads:

SOS. Next year I'll need a transplant as I slip closer to acute renal failure. I haven't been able to find a compatible match from family or friends. I'm seeking a healthy person with TYPE O blood willing to consider the donation of a kidney. I know it's a huge gift and can only come from a very special person. I'm desperately trying to avoid dialysis. The official waiting time for a cadaver kidney in DC is four to seven years. All donor expenses will be covered by the recipient.

She also posted to the Chevy Chase board and plans to put a message out on the Listserv for Tenley Circle. So far, she says, she's received well wishes, but no takers. She remains encouraged. Another woman who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., Beth Abramowitz, received a kidney from a donor who read a plea on Facebook. The plea was posted by an old high school boyfriend and was read by a mother in Tallahassee, Fla., who agreed to give up an organ to a stranger. Abramowitz found out about Greer's appeal and got in touch to tell her to keep trying.

Greer's kidneys are 21 percent functional. As that number dips lower, she'll be forced to go on dialysis. Her doctor told her last summer she'll need a new kidney in 2009 and that she should start asking people she knows. It's a prospect that doesn't thrill her.

"Some of us have trouble asking for rides," she says. "It's a huge thing....Some people I know have come forward, but they're the wrong blood type, or they have physical limitations, or they're the wrong age."

This is a huge problem nationally---and in D.C., where Greer says there are more than 1,000 people in need of kidneys. "There are not enough cadavers, not enough people want to donate their organs."

Greer, a freelance editor and writer, came to D.C. from her native Chicago in 1977. She's married and does not have kids, in part because of the damage to her body caused by lithium treatments administered before she moved here. (She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder; her family, she says, has a history with the disease.) The lithium, widely administered after gaining FDA approval in 1970, also scarred her kidneys, she says.  A study published by the National Institutes of Health states that renal damage is a known side effect and that "although this effect of lithium is probably functional and reversible early in treatment, it may become structural and irreversible over time."

Greer's ideal donor is between 20 and 60 years old, is Type O or Type-O compatible, and has no health problems. For her part, Greer plans to continue to pursue whatever legal means to find a kidney. "But it's scary to me. I'd probably be more of an expert on how to do this at this point, but I put it away some days. Sometimes I don't want to accept this is happening."

Head over to The Sexist for episode 2 of City Paper's new sex & politics podcast, "Five Minutes You'll Never Get Back," in which we discuss the merits of Joe the Plumber and death by Facebook.

Tim Carman, our food critic, usually gives me copy. He sometimes gives me hairy Asian fruits to try. Occasionally he will bring by his dog, Coltrane Meatsack, to wag his tail in my direction. But this week Tim Carman gave me the koobface worm. I'll be honest, I prefer the hairy fruits.

The koobface worm is a virus that spreads through Facebook and MySpace. I thought it somewhat odd that Tim, my Facebook friend, sent me a video message that said I'd been caught "making love" and that I really needed to see that video and, oh, also: "LOL." Didn't seem like Tim (especially that "LOL" part), but there was his little Facebook picture of the Biscuitville sign and I thought, well, maybe this is some sort of super funny joke.

The joke is that Tim had no control over this thing, it went to all or most of the people on his list and if you clicked on the video and followed some instructions on downloading the latest Flash player, you got wormed. The worm shut down my Facebook account because it sent spam to all or most of the people on my list. It also infected the Google search on my home PC so that clicking on any of the entries will redirect you to wherever the wormers want you to go.

This thing is not exactly new. Yesterday's New York Times "Bits" column has it beginning in late July. Kaspersky lab has apparently found 27 variants of it, all of them directed toward the two most populated social networking sites. Facebook released a statement that it has "detected and contained" the worm and that "these efforts have limited the affected users to a small percentage of those on Facebook.”

Facebook also e-mailed me that my Facebook account has been restored, although when I login I'm told I'm still an evil spammer. Several messages to them have not been returned. Facebook has a phone number, which instructs you to send them e-mail.

Based on my old-person skills and some limited research, here's how to protect yourself: Run a virus scan. According to an article on CNET, the best free one for this particular virus is Malwarebytes Anti-Maleware 1.25, which can be downloaded here. If you've already got the virus, my understanding is this might detect it and repair it. There is also a list of files that can be deleted if you disable system restore, which McAfee sort of explains here.

If anyone knows of other solutions, please fire away. I miss all those friends I haven't talked to in 15 years.

Why, hello there, person who attended my high school. Thank you for requesting to reconnect with me via a social networking Website. It appears that you've recently become someone's wife.

At first I wasn't so sure that you had recently gotten married. But then I noticed that you had changed your last name to a completely different last name. "Hmm," I thought. "That's weird." A quick perusal of your photo gallery didn't help clear up the matter. Why do you appear to be leaning against an abandoned but polished vintage car at the edge of a wooded marsh, your left hand posed strangely in the air, as some dude stares intently into your face? And to think: In all that time that you were sitting three or more rows behind me in Freshman Biology, you never once mentioned your interest in doubles rustic portraiture.

But then I saw that series of photographs of you swathed in a huge, flowing, white satin dress, some dude staring intently into your face. At that point, I was sooooo on to you!

Your autobiographical section only helped heighten my suspicion that you had recently gotten married:

Website: http://www.[some dude]and[girl who sat three or more rows behind me in Freshman Biology]swedding.com

Interests: Enjoying my wonderful husband!, Trying to talk [some dude] into my design ideas for our home.

I must admit that I became a bit confused when I reached the "Favorites Book" section, where you include "Anything by bell hooks and Gloria Steinem." Hmm. Anything?

Thanks for clearing it all up:

Relationship Status: Married.

Don't Care,

Amanda Hess