Wow. Just, wow.

Best invention...ever? Seriously, even better than I could've ever imagined, and I think I want one, now. Just because.

Best blog post I've read all day

Just wanted to give a link to this post that lists all the different things anyone has blamed so far for the VA Tech shootings earlier this week.

Steve Capus doesn't just make the news, he IS the news

I met NBC News President Steve Capus once, while I was an intern at the LA Bureau for NBC News. He's got a surprisingly quiet and modest demeanor for someone who so capably manages such a large number of powerful people, heading up NBC Network News as well as overseeing MSNBC (directly led by Dan Abrams). Despite being the highest-ranking executive in the room, he was definitely the easiest to talk to and the one I was least afraid to introduce myself to.

On to relevant information. I first noticed Steve Capus showing up in the news last week following the Imus scandal, after he fired the morning cable news personality. Today, Capus is again the subject of headlines, after NBC News received correspondence from the shooter at VA Tech, sent just prior to his violent rampage. NBC News is now a part of the investigation, not just doing the investigating.

News about the news and journalists happens all the time (Katie Couric's move to CBS, Bob Woodruff's injury in Iraq, plus all the media analysis seen daily on The Daily Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann). But it's interesting that NBC News and its leader are in the spotlight for a full two weeks in a row, and both times for something basically out of Capus' control. It'll be interesting to see what befalls NBC News next week.

Somebody give this guy some love!

This is Ernst, the Sun Bear cub who lives next door to Knut, who's apparently quite the attention hog, so few people ever go to see also-adorable Ernst. I do plan on visiting Germany sometime in the next year, and giving Ernst some love and attention is now at the top of my to-do list.

Strike Two for Fox News?

One of the most unfortunate media debacles over the VA Tech shootings today was the multiple false accusations levied against Wayne Chiang, an Asian-American student at VA Tech who happens to collect guns and lives in the dorm where the first shootings occurred.

I first heard of him perusing Digg this afternoon and one of the newer stories was a link to his Facebook Photo Albums, a few showcasing his gun collection. The Digg entry (likely based off of info on this Digg entry) labeled him as "kinda nuts... is this the Virginia shooter?" I still have yet to find any good video of it, but according to his livejournal (which he's been updating all day, long after the real shooter died), Fox News was putting his pictures and his face all over the airwaves, possibly also accusing him of being responsible for the deaths of 32 people.

I promptly "buried" the Digg story, hoping to push it down in the rankings, labeling it as outright inaccurate. I instinctively knew it couldn't possibly be based on any sound journalism and was most likely nothing more than jumping to conclusions based on stereotypes. Yes, it may be the dream of every citizen journalist (or wannabe citizen journalist) to unearth something shocking and important on the internet like finding the identity of a mass murderer on Facebook (somehow before Facebook rapidly takes down their profile, a la Holly Ashcraft). But that's a hard dream to realize if you're just the average Digg user, especially since most Digg users just keep passing on pages and pages of information without verifying where any of it came from. Because of this, Digg is great for gauging what's being read and what's making its way around the blogosphere, but it is by no means a reliable source of information.

Knowing this, I didn't make too much of a fuss, chalking it up to overreactive Digg users passing along the information as quickly as possible, hoping they'd struck gold and could maybe take some credit for it. That is, until Geraldo Rivera allegedly got into the mix. If I find I've misunderstood the Fox News broadcast about Chiang, I'll recant everything I'm about to say, but for the second time today, I find myself criticizing Fox News' journalistic ethics. First it was the inclusion of Jack Thompson, clearly trying to inject unnecessary controversy into a very sensitive and still raw subject. Now, Rivera, jumping to the same unfounded, stereotype- and rumor-based conclusions as Facebook users with overactive imaginations. Simply put, Fox News has done nothing but degrade its own credibility as a source for actual news as opposed to a national television outlet for rumors, hype and unfounded accusations of a wide variety.

Update: Just a rant: Seriously, people, this is not the guy. Asian+guns does NOT equal murderer. So stop Digging his livejournal and calling him a mass murderer, quit calling into news organizations with tips about this "suspicious" livejournal or xanga blog. It's really starting to annoy me.

VA Tech Student Alert E-mails

Washington Post has the e-mails sent to students this morning announcing security measures to be taken after the first shooting at the residence hall on campus.

9:50 a.m.

Subject: Please stay put

A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows.

We've gotten these security e-mails at USC but never for an immediate security risk such as this, they've always been more along the lines of incident reports about muggings etc. that had taken place in the neighborhood, always along with tips for keeping yourself safe late at night in the city.

What's perhaps most interesting is that this initial e-mail informed students of two shooters, one of whom was taken into custody, as opposed to the single shooter reported in most media who took his own life.

10:52 a.m.

Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody

In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.

Police and EMS are on the scene.

Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter.

The next 24 hours should be interesting as this all unfolds...

VA Tech Student News Updates

The Virginia Tech student newspaper, The Collegiate Times (currently being redirected to collegemedia.com due to a server breakdown) is still being updated quite frequently. A great source for eye-witness accounts from inside the campus. Of course many are unconfirmed but they've got more details on there than I've seen anywhere else yet.

"It seemed so strange," Sheehan said. "Because he peaked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in."

"He was just a normal looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout type outfit. He wore a tan button up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.