We Are A Feral Beast. Kneel Before Us.

"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

The BPP crew is reunited in New York today, although our secret rings, which when brought together unleash newsgathering mayhem upon the nation, are on backorder. Perhaps it's these diabolical schemes of ours that led British PM Tony Blair to call the media a "feral beast." Man, when it comes to clever insults, Blair kicks Bush and Cheney's butts.

In any event there's news aplenty, from an ovarian cancer breakthrough to the passing of Mr. Wizard, below the fold.

 

NEWSCAST — Ovarian cancer breakthrough, Hamas v. Fatah, peacekeepers allowed into Darfur, Blair calls the media a 'feral beast,' YouTube to test software that detects copyright violations, Duke prosecutor's ethics hearings, Spurs take 3-0 lead, and Tigers' Verlander pitches no hitter.

CAMPUS HOMICIDES — "About once every year, a campus murder is committed after administrators take insufficent action despite warnings about threats, flawed security or dangerous situations, a USA TODAY analysis of college homicides since 1991 shows." That lead sums up a disturbing look at the tendency of college administrators to ignore warnings about unstable students and unsafe situations. Will the Virginia Tech shootings be the event that leads to a change?

IMMIGRATION — President Bush went all the way to Capitol Hill to lobby Republicans on his immigration bill, and all he got was a lousy smackdown. We had an interesting discussion about how much coverage we'd give this. We've been talking a lot of immigration, and we don't want to get so caught up with small changes in big stories that we end up covering angles that most of you aren't so interested in. At the same time, we don't want to ignore big stuff. Where does this rank? I was actually more interested in a poll saying that "a strong majority of Americans — including nearly two-thirds of Republicans — favor allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements." This "path to citizenship" provision, labelled "amnesty" by its detractors, is supposedly one of the more controversial parts of the immigration bill. Strong support for this provision, contrasted with strong opposition to the notion of "amnesty," may back up President Bush's assertion of a couple of weeks ago that some of the bill's opponents haven't actually read the bill.

MR. WIZARD MOVES ON — Don Herbert, a.k.a. Mr. Wizard, died yesterday at the age of 89. His popular kids' science show was a big hit in the 50's and 60's, and was revived for a whole new generation on Nickelodeon in the 80's. I know it hit me in the gut when I heard the news, and from the reaction on blogs like The Lede and Slashdot, I'm not alone. I'll quote straight from The Lede:

One statistic mentioned in The Times's obituary today demonstrates Mr. Wizard's enormous influence:
During the 1960s and '70s, about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science.

Some of those folks are talking over at Slashdot about their favorite Mr. Wizard memories. Here's an especially poignant one:
I distinctly remember watching an episode of Mr. Wizard when I was about 5 years old. He was showing the power of centripetal force; took a bucket full of water and made a quick vertical circle with it. All the water stayed in the bucket of course. To my 5 year old mind, that totally blew me away.

Here's one more walk down memory lane...

ASTRONAUT NEEDLEPOINT — NASA astronauts, who may or may not have been inspired by Mr. Wizard, will attempt to fix a tear in the shuttle's protective blanket using a needle and thread. (They said duct tape doesn't work in a vacuum. Seriously.) We were all amused by the idea that repairing a space shuttle comes down to such simple tools. (Remember two years ago when astronauts considered using a saw to take off a loose piece of tile?) We may break this story out later this afternoon and combine it with Mr. Wizard for a science news segment.

COLLEGES TO GO GREEN — The leaders of 284 colleges and universities have signed a pact to become "carbon neutral" as soon as possible. This means they won't use any more carbon than they produce. The commitment is impressive in its scope and ambition, but it had us all wondering: How are they going to do it?

iPHONE MANIA — This wasn't sparked by one article in particular, but we all agreed that the buzz over this product is pretty insane. How badly do you want it?

AND FINALLY — There's a new syndrome out there—Phantom Cell Phone Vibrations. You know you have them. In fact, I'm calling you right now. Or am I?...That cricket coach wasn't murdered after all...21-year-old Media Bistro blogger Brian Stelter from TVNewser gets hired by the New York Times...A whale caught in May was first hunted in 1890. Crazy.