Let it rain ... or not

It's going to rain in Beijing before the city hosts the 2008 Summer Olympics. But skies will be clear during the games. Scientists will make sure of it. How? By forcing it to rain before he Games. If a bunch of scientists can bring precipitation, lowering the temperature to reverse the impending global-warming disaster is certainly within the realm of possibility.

NBC wrong to repeatedly show video

We now know what Cho Seung-Hui was doing between shootings at Virginia Tech. Hew was in his dorm room preparing to send a despicable package of videos and other ramblings to NBC. After turning over the originals to authorities, the brain trust at NBC decided the rantings were compelling enough to repeatedly show viewers.

A case can be made for showing this trash once, maybe twice. But after that, a network is gratuitously exploiting tragedy. I'm not arguing NBC News should pull the video from its Web site, as Fox News Channel did today. But NBC needs to think more critically about the consequences of its decisions.
Update: 5:41 p.m. As wrong as NBC was to show the video multiple times, newspapers that published still photos of the madman did their readers a service. They most certainly have received flak, but doing so provided a clear picture of just how psychopathic Cho Seung-Hui was. I like what the San Antonio Express-News did with its front page. It's difficult to look at for too long, but that's the point.

Va. Tech students will get degrees

The 32 students killed this week at Virginia Tech will receive their degrees posthumously, according to the Associated Press. This is a great move by a university struggling to come to terms with the worst shooting spree ever seen on U.S. soil.

One question for authorities

Doubtless, the authorities are working diligently to get to the bottom of yesterday's gruesome rampage at Virginia Tech. There's not a person in this nation who would trade places with Tech administrators, police or other law enforcement authorities investigating what led Cho Seung-Hui to masacre 32 people. But one question begs to be answered: Where was the 23-year-old gunman between 7:15, when he apparently killed two people in a residence hall, and 9:45, when the slaughter of 30 people turned this into the worst mass murder in U.S. history?

A welcome opposing view

In the midst of the global-warming monologue -- a dialogue or debate is impossible without a fairly treated opposing viewpoint -- Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam has written an instructive column. Beam's work will open eyes to just how hostile some proponents of climate change are are to skeptics and their research.

Update: Sherl Crow will add her voice to the monologue with an 11-school college tour. beginning at SMU. I can't think of a more appropriate place to begin.

Frogs sweep UCSB

The baseball Frogs beat UCSB on Sunday to earn a series sweep and their 18th straight home win. The Frogs find themselves in the unenviable position of having to win their conference to have a realistic chance at returning to the NCAA Tournament this year. The Mountain West is a weak baseball conference with little prayer of receiving an at-large Regionals bid. If the Frogs continue rolling through the league and stumble in the MWC tournament, they might still make the post season. But there's no doubt they must do much better in their midweek non-conference games than last Tuesday, when Texas A&M crushed them, 13-2, in College Station.

The genius of the Coliseum

Examples of the Italians' architectural, artistic and cultural genius abound in Venice, Florence and Rome, the three cities my wife and I visited on our recent vacation. There are certain things one has to see in Italy to make a trip complete. One such marvel is the Coliseum (bottom), the first-century amphitheater built to hold 50,000 spectators and house some of the roughest sporting contests the world has ever seen.

The way we build stadiums these days, especially in the United States, that an arena could stand for 2,000 years is mind-boggling. If they had cars back then, it doubtless would have been razed for a parking lot. As the history books record, the Coliseum -- and pictures illustrate -- the Coliseum has lost a little off the top. The world can thank the cannibalizing of the Coliseum, not architectural flaws, for its irregular shape. Italy has made many more contributions to the world, all of which deserve to be chronicled. I came away from the trip with a tremendous respect for the living history lesson that is Italy.

More of this genius to come ...

Update: Another building of the same vintage (nearly) was the Pantheon (top), built in the second century, from 126-28 . Whew! So much older. The Romans would have pilfered this marvelous former temple had it not been converted to a Catholic church.