i thought this was kind of neat: European text messagers raise millions for Asian tsunami victims

Italian mobile phone users have donated more than 11 million euros (15 million dollars) for the victims of the Asian tsunamis through a text messaging arrangement that seemed to set a trend, it was reported.

The Rome daily Corriere della Sera said Italians could contribute one euro to tsunami disaster relief every time they sent a text message, thanks to an agreement between the country's four mobile phone companies and its main television channels.

text messaging in italy is absolutely insane - in fact, i think people there use it more than actually just phoning another person. i thought it was the greatest thing ever, and i really wonder why it hasn't seemed to ever catch on in the U.S. i mean, italians use text messages to discover cheating spouses; berlusconi sent 50 million text messages to urge people to vote for him; even the pope uses them to send his followers a daily spiritual message. one italian prankster even sent a text message to his wife from a plane claiming that there were terrorists on board. hysterical!