• cause A couple of mall security workers started cracking up at some dumb girl who fell into a fountain while texting. It then got posted to the Interwebs, where it became a pretty major viral hit, with a solid three million views in a week and a hearty belly laugh from us.
• reaction Cathy Cruz Marrero is suing the mall, saying she could’ve been seriously hurt. “I’m just like dumbfounded. And all I kept saying was, ‘I fell. I fell. I fell in the fountain. I fell in the fountain.'” Strike “founded” off of that phrase and we’ll agree. source

• (thanks Something Awful Forums)

• It feels like a Republican take on an Obama campaign tactic. The House Minority Whip has made the YouCut program a participatory way of getting involved in an activity everyone loves: Cutting wasteful spending in the federal government. Concerned citizens vote by text message, and the winner gets put up for a vote in the House. The top line item? Cutting the Presidential Election Fund, which John McCain took advantage of in 2008 but Obama didn’t. source

• Well, that #(&(@&@ sucks. Screw them. China, currently kings of the sassy-kid-talkin’ “I do what I want” bandwagon, are forcing phone companies in the country to censor text messages with “illegal or unhealthy content,” mostly by suspending service to unwitting dirty-joke-makers. Just to make sure China blocks this post after we put it up:

china tiananmen square human rights porn sex sex censorship communism google xxx sexual content pornography tibet dalai lama playboy china tiananmen square human rights porn sex sex censorship communism google xxx sexual content pornography tibet dalai lamachina tiananmen square human rights porn sex sex censorship communism google xxx sexual content pornography tibet dalai lama

• There, that should do it. source

• thursday After trying for weeks to convince Apple to fix their iPhone software, two security researchers revealed a scary method for hacking the iPhone using SMS.
• friday After feeling the wrath of negative PR contained in that message, Apple hurried and fixed the vulnerability, but you have to hook up to iTunes to fix it. source

• 23.2 times the risk of getting in a crash when you’re texting source

• phone Your phone can be wiretapped and calls can be recorded. This method unsuccessfully nailed Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
• IM It only takes minimizing a window to hide. However – and this is where Mark Foley lost his meal ticket – IM programs leave detailed chat logs.
• text You can do it anywhere. However – and this is how Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick got nailed – logs of texts can be subpoenaed.
• e-mail E-mail leaves a paper trail, and in Mark Sanford’s case, it can be hacked. Plus, e-mail is old news. He should’ve cheated using Facebook. source

• cause Boost Mobile, in response to the cruddy economy, created a $50 no-contract unlimited plan that’s proved to be very, very popular for broke people.
• effect It’s so popular, in fact, that many users of the service are complaining about slow text messaging. The influx of new users are to blame. source

• Uhm i’m not sure really. In june i had cheer camp so like alot of my friends had texted me. And when i wasn’t at camp i’d text my friends and girls on my team. i don’t like talking on the phone so i’d prefer texting people.
• Emilee Cox • in a text message about her texting habits • source

• 35,463 The top monthly mark hit by 14-year-old Emilee Cox of Clermont, Fla. And you thought 14,000 was impressive.
• 1,182 Number per day at her June peak. That’s one text message for every waking minute. Doesn’t she have class or something? source

• 14,528 total text messages were sent by the Orange County, Calif. 13-year-old.
• 484 text messages were sent per day. That’s one every two minutes of every waking hour. source