11:10 AM -- The evidence continues to mount that each advance in telecommunications technology lowers the collective IQ, though nature (sometimes in the guise of a locomotive) does what it can to redress the balance. Cincinnati's WLWT TV reports:

A man sending a text message avoided being hit by a train going in one direction only to be struck by another train.

Witnesses told police the man was looking down at his cell phone as he crossed some railroad tracks around 9 a.m. at Township Road and Elmwood Avenue in Elmwood Place.

Witnesses said the man waited for a southbound train to pass, put his head down and started walking across the tracks.

The man apparently did not see or hear a northbound train as it approached, witnesses said.

Same thing once happened to Wile E. Coyote, I believe. Which is all very well, being a matter involving only one man and one or two of Newton's laws.

But the relentless need to communicate nonsense can also endanger relatively innocent bystanders. The New York Times reports on a texting mishap that killed five, noting the following:

One recent study conducted by AAA found that more than a third of more than 1,000 teenagers surveyed admitted to texting behind the wheel. Another poll by Zogby found that 66 percent of people surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24 admitted to text messaging and driving.

Famous last words for the 21st century: ROFLMA—.

— Larry, Attack Monkey, Light Reading