Egyptian "killer text"

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090325/twl-egypt-tries-to-hang-up-on-killer-sms-3cd7efd.html

The Egyptian government has sought to dispel rumours that a mobile phone text message "from unknown foreign quarters" is spreading around the country and killing those who receive it. Skip related content

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The extraordinary move by Egypt's health and interior ministries follows press reports that an SMS containing a special combination of numbers killed a man in the town of Mallawi south of Cairo.

"He died vomiting blood,followed by stroke, shortly after he received a message from an unknownphone number," the Egyptian Gazette reported on Wednesday.

"The number begins with the symbol (+) and ends with (111)," it said.

An "official security source" was quoted by the official MENA news agency as denying that those who receive the SMS "get splitting headaches followed by brain haemorrhage that leads to death."

A statement from the health ministry quoted health officials in several regions as saying that they had "received no cases with such symptoms"

"These rumours contradict all scientific facts," the statement said.

Egypt's interior ministry has detained three workers at an oil company for allegedly starting the rumours "and they are now being interrogated," MENA said.

Yes, well.

okay, what?

i like that though "tries to hang up on", thats neat.

Snow Crash: mobile edition

"Before You Die, You SeeHear The Ringtone"

I love the idea of an SMS "containing a special combination of numbers" only instead of, like, a lottery win, it gives you a fucking fatal aneurysm.

Them numbers ain't that special. Them numbers nasty.

"forward this onto five of your friends and make their day"

"...shorter"

Maybe the man's wife send him an SMS that said she's leaving him, and he was so shocked he had a stroke?

lol egypters

This sort of reminds of the movie Pi, where the protagonist comes upon a sequence of numbers that's supposed to reveal the mysteries of the universe. Maybe the truth about the universe is too horrible to live with?

Actually, it's more like a combination of Pi and Ring. Maybe some Egyptian geeks have simply watched too many movies.

+what a load of bollocks111

potential Sun headlines:

RING TUT
PYRAMID SCHEME

SMS CAUSES PHAROAH'LD TROUBLES IN EGYPT

If the text is what kills you, how did the sender of the SMS manage to write it?

probly constructed in segments by more than one person?

hey Tuomas gimme ya number

EGYPT KILLER TXT - OFFICIAL DE-NILE

GIZA RING

Maybe the SMS was sent by someone who doesn't know Arabic and therefore couldn't read the text? Maybe this is CIA's latest weapon in the war againt Muslims?

BLIMEY, IT'S TUOMAS!

TEXT LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

potential Sun headlines:

RING TUT
PYRAMID SCHEME

― Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Thursday, 26 March 2009 13:52

*applause*

CURSE OF THE TEXT MESSAGE

(obv one i know)

DON'T OPEN SMSAME

+ 24£90 111 (zalgo!)

Egypt's interior ministry has detained three workers at an oil company for allegedly starting the rumours "and they are now being interrogated," MENA said.

so are these guys being tortured now or what

This whole thing is a viral marketing campaign for Johnny Ball's new series "Sphinx of a Number"...

xpost: egypt police must not be all about torture since they allow stories like "One Tourist and Four Army Boys in Cairo. XXX" to be online, right

I am totally baffled by Tuomas's image of someone who can operate a cellphone without recognizing Arabic numerals

(Or the idea that a killer text couldn't be sent on during the splitting-headache / brain-hemorrhaging period)

P.S. So long as we are doing pop-culture similarities, my first thoughts were about "The Barnhouse Effect" and Infinite Jest

this woulda been a much better movie if they hadnt stuck fukken ed burns in it

Monty Python would surely come up with a killer text skit if they were still a going concern...

texting... it's well weapon
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/4/4312252_1a15d51901.jpg

i was hoping this would at least be about an ancient egyptian scroll or something, not text messages.

i was thinking of 'infinite jest' and that chuck palahniuk book 'lullabye'.

i would send this text to so many people!

you need to receive it 51 times before actually dying tho

what is that thing... that ad... why would you need an extra-large 5... what does well weapon mean... what is tv-cast hijack capability...

+481516234211

http://i41.tinypic.com/sfyywk.jpg

wanted for questioning

s1ocki it was a joke ad used for promoting hugely popular cult sitcom Nathan Barley

+9111 is a joke, friends.

i always genuinely though that phone looked awesome tho

I love the way it folds open as a set of mini DJ decks

"hoot your trap off"

Anyway, back to lame puns...

The fears of the Egyptian authorities that this was the beginning of a wave of attacks was thankfully averted when the perpetrators called a ceasefire - yes that's right folks, it's ring peace...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/cavern-/Egyptian_mummy_Louvrecopy.jpg

Trying to remember this all day: This is like One Missed Call, the awful awful flick.