VA Tech massacre: 33+ dead, largest shooting in US history

Xeni Jardin:

[ Image: via CollegiateTimes.com, a photograph of students taking cover in a French class. ]

At least 33 people were killed today, including a gunman, and at least 27 were injured, at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA. It was the deadliest mass civilian shooting in US history (NYT reg-free link). Much of the attack took place inside the school's science and engineering building, Norris Hall. A statement from school administration is here: Link.

The DC Metblog has two related posts: one, two.

Many survivors, friends, and relatives are now trying to track down missing VA Tech students via Facebook (Canada.com story link).

The Wired blog 27b Stroke 6 has posted a cellphone video of the university campus, during the shooting -- you can hear gunshots going off in the background. [Update, 230PM PT: Jamal Albarghouti, the VA Tech student who shot the cellphone video, is on CNN and mentions that he shot the footage on a Nokia N70.]

27B Stroke 6 has also posted a personal account by the university's webmaster:

Bruce Harper, the Virginia Tech webmaster, flipped on his Pro-95 scanner during the unfolding shooting tragedy in Blacksburg this morning. A few hours later, he emailed this inside account of how multiple police agencies responded to the crisis to a DC-area scanner enthusiasts group. We're copying it verbatim below (email addresses have been redacted).

Excerpt:

At 1:30 PM -0400 4/16/07, XXXXXXXXX wrote:

>I have nothing to add. I'm watching the coverage on TV. At least one

>lister at Scan-DC has a vt.edu email address, Bruce Harper

>. He's a railfan who scans the ATCS information.

>

>Harper, are you OK?

Other than being devastated by all this, yes, thanks. It has been a zoo and
the Media Building (where I'm located) is across campus from where all this
took place. But between having a scanner on my desk (and being info central
for the building) and having to scramble to keep updates on the web site, it
has been intense. I expect I'll decompress later this evening.

I have a Pro-95 that has most of the local frequencies plugged into it and
it definitely has gotten a workout. This was a multiple-agency response and
there is little interoperability -- but the police still got the job done.
Virginia Tech Police Department was and is lead agency in the whole event,
with Blacksburg PD right there with them. The Montgomery County Sheriff's
Department is also involved and the Virginia State Police. Give all the
various dispatchers credit for a great job, as they were the linchpins that
kept all the communications straight between all the agencies. There was a
massive response from all the local rescue squads, let by the student-run
Virginia Tech Rescue Squad. A triage area was set up adjacent to Norris Hall
and ambulances shuttled in and out of the area to transport victims to
Montgomery Regional Hospital, the Carillion New River Valley Medical Center,
and to hospitals in the Roanoke Valley. Carillion's helicopters and the
State Police helicopters were unable to be used for transport due to the
high winds we are experiencing.

Full post here: Link. More updates from around the web at 27B Stroke 6, here.

And anti-electronic-gaming prohibitionist kookwad Jack Thompson wastes no time before thrusting himself in front of television cameras to blame the tragedy on you-know-what: Link.

Update, 240PM PT: I'm sure "Copycat Effect" author Loren Coleman would have something to say about the following exchange, which occurred just now on CNN's "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer:

[Gregg MCCrary, Former FBI Special Agent, Fredericksburg, VA]: There is a contagion factor. There is an increased likelihood of more incidents like this happening in the coming weeks. The most important take-home message right now is to be sensitive to this issue...

[Wolf Blitzer] Are you talking about a copycat factor? (...)

[McCrary] Yes. Because there are people who are already on the edge, and events like this can put them over the edge.

Update, 253PM PT: Eyewitness reports are beginning to surface on blogs, myspaces and livejournals, and in local Blacksburg, VA newspapers. Snip from a roundup on Planet Blacksburg:

[ Ruiqi Zhang, a computer engineering major, who was in Norris 205 this morning ]

"I was sitting in class when we heard loud popping noises a couple rooms down... The teacher and a student went into the hallway and rushed back in and told everybody to get down. We put a table against the door and had a few students holding down the door. The gunman tried to shoulder his way in and when he saw that he couldn't, he put two shots through the door it was the scariest moment of my life..."

Link to more first-person accounts on Planet Blacksburg.

Some online journal accounts are gathered at this Washington Post blog entry: Link. (via DC metblogs)

Photos have been showing up throughout the day on Flickr. Here's a set by user and1headache which shows law enforcement attempting to secure the site: Link. See also the VA Tech Shooting pool. Look also for photos tagged VA Tech, Virginia Tech, or Norris Hall. Collegiate Times has this photo gallery of related images, and this map of the shooting site.

And an odd footnote: this week (specifically, Friday, April 20) marks the anniversary of the Columbine massacre.

(Via Boing Boing.)

New Sony DVDs Not Working In Some Players

An anonymous reader writes "It seems that the most recent DVDs released by Sony — specifically Stranger Than Fiction, Casino Royale, and The Pursuit of Happyness — have some kind of 'feature' that makes them unplayable on many DVD players. This doesn't appear to be covered by the major media yet, but this link to a discussion over at Amazon gives a flavor of the problems people are experiencing. A blogger called Sony and was told the problem is with the new copy protection scheme, and they do not intend to fix it. Sony says it's up to the manufacturers to update their hardware."

(Via Slashdot.)

Oh god. Not this shit again.

Will Sony never learn???

Epic Church

Self Explanatory.

Virginia Tech football helmets monitor hits wirelessly

While the Virginia Tech Hokies tend to rely more on dazzling special teams teams play than sheer defensive prowess, the players take a lickin' regardless. In a presumed extension of Beamer Ball, the sparkly helmets donned by the football squad will sport internal accelerometers and wireless transmitters that beam (ahem) information about the seriou

read more | digg story

White House says it will not turn over RNC emails.

The Politico reports:

White House Counsel Fred Fielding, in a letter today, told Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, that the White House has not budged in its refusal to allow the panels to question several White House aides, including Karl Rove, about what they know regarding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, moving the two sides closer to a constitutional battle over the scandal.

Fielding also appears to be trying to head off an attempt by Conyers to obtain e-mails and documents from the Republican National Committee regarding the firings. … Fielding also said that “it was and remains our intention to collect e-mails and documents from those [RNC-controlled] accounts as well as the official White House e-mail and document retention systems” as part of a broader deal with the two committees on staffer testimony.

In a response statement, Conyers was unmoved: “the Judiciary Committee intends to obtain the relevant emails directly from the RNC. The White House position seems to be that executive privilege not only applies in the Oval Office, but to the RNC as well. There is absolutely no basis in law or fact for such a claim.”

(Via Think Progress.)

During CNN Appearance, Al Franken Calls On CNN To Fire Glenn Beck

Appearing last night on CNN’s Larry King Live, Al Franken said that firing Don Imus was the “right decision,” but pointed out that CNN has its own anchor who regularly spews hateful and bigoted remarks.

“CNN has Glenn Beck on,” Franken told King. “Glenn Beck asked my congressman, Keith Ellison, who is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, you know, I just want to ask you, how do I know that you’re not working with the enemy? … I don’t know why that wasn’t grounds for CNN thinking, well, maybe Glenn Beck shouldn’t be on. I mean, how dare he say that to a congressman who has just been elected?”

King asked Franken, “With a lot of [controversial remarks] going on, are you calling for other dismissals?” Franken said, “No, I’m not. Just Glenn Beck on your network.” Watch it:

Some recent low-lights from Glenn Beck:

The anti-gay slur “faggot” is nothing more than “a naughty name.” [1/23/07]

“[Hillary Clinton is] the stereotypical bitch.” [3/15/07]

“What happened to the Duke lacrosse team was practically a lynching without the rope. And for the first time in my life, Mr. Oreo Cookie without the chocolate on the outside can understand why people celebrated when O.J. Simpson was acquitted.” [1/15/07, using a racial slur for African-Americans that refers to “being black on the outside and white on the inside]

“I wonder if I’m alone in this — you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year.” [9/9/05]

“And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.” [9/9/05]

(HT: My Two Sense)

Digg It!

Transcript: (more…)

(Via Think Progress.)

Second Life Hype Taken To New Levels

This past year has seen a wave of companies enter Second Life, ostensibly for the purpose of doing business there, but mainly because it's an easy way of garnering some free publicity. However, some companies are actually drinking their own Kool-Aid, as they argue that Second Life represents the future of customer service. One consulting firm is trying to pitch the idea that Second Life offers many advantages to traditional phone-based customer support, noting, for example, that customers can amuse themselves in the virtual world while waiting for a representative to deal with their issue. Of course, it's not clear how this is superior to the status quo, since it's easy enough to put the phone on speaker, place it on your desk and continue about your business, unrestrained from the limitations of the virtual world. Furthermore, for any company that has to deal with a high volume of customers, it's ridiculous to think that things would be more efficient if only operators communicated through avatars, not to mention the disruption to business that would occur if prank-making griefers were to show up. There's no doubt that there's a lot of room for innovation in the world of customer service, which remains dreadful at many companies, but it's highly doubtful that Second Life holds the key.

(Via Techdirt.)

RIAA Still Can’t Understand That The Product Is More Important Than The Price

Despite some universities refusing to act as the RIAA's henchmen in its campaign against their students, the group says the effort to bully students into paying "discounted settlements" is working to help stop file-sharing. Of course, it says that about everything it tries (even when it's not true), but you'd imagine if any of these attempts really were successful, it wouldn't need to keep coming up with new ones. Anyhow, just in case there was any doubt as to how out of touch the RIAA is with the market and its customers, its general counsel and EVP wonders why students would continue to download from file-sharing networks when they have access to discounted or free subscription services. Uh, maybe it's because students realize how lame those services are? When students choose to keep illegally downloading even though they have free legal alternatives available, it illustrates that this isn't just an issue of them wanting to not have to pay for music, as the RIAA would like you to believe. It's an issue of the RIAA and its member labels not being able to deliver an attractive product to consumers. But why bother to innovate and come up with something people would want to buy, when you can just sue all your customers instead?

(Via Techdirt.)