Morning Edition

Mike Tyson tells the New York Daily News he would like to play Othello. Reviews of his acting have been mixed, but Tyson says he could do it, given time to prepare. "They say my skills are horrible," he says, "but I have the natural timing."

A natural gas company in Great Falls, Montana, wanted to educate consumers. So it printed 25,000 scratch-and-sniff cards to show how a gas leak would smell. Then the company tossed some of the cards. As they were crushed in a garbage truck, the gas smell filled the town.

Royal Dutch Shell is pushing ahead with plans for the world's deepest offshore oil and gas production facility. It will be nearly two miles beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. It is testing the bounds of the oil and gas industry's capability to drill ever deeper.

There's a debate across the country over how well universities are preparing graduates for the real world, and whether colleges should operate more like businesses. That debate is particularly heated in Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry wants big changes at state colleges, including the flagship University of Texas.

Hundreds of police were deployed in southern Beijing Wednesday to quell a large protest after a migrant worker fell to her death at a clothing mall. Police say it was suicide, but there are reports the woman was gang-raped by security guards. Her family is asking for a proper investigation.

A while back, Max Kornblith sent the following email to Tyler Cowen, an economist who blogs at Marginal Revolution:

1) As a fairly recent graduate of an Ivy League institution (with a bachelor's degree), most of my classmates seemed to have some idea that career and life path choice should be driven by a "passion" such that the right choice is self-evident to the chooser. What does this belief mean to you as a social scientist? ...

YouTube is expected to announce in the coming days that it will launch paid subscription channels, a first for the online video platform that's been around since 2005. But, with the growing number of subscription services available for entertainment, shopping and news, some consumers say they're reaching digital subscription overload.

President Obama travels to Texas on Thursday for the second time in as many weeks. He will talk about job training and economic opportunity, but he may have a political opportunity on his mind as well.

Obama lost Texas by more than 1 million votes last year. But Democrats believe their fortunes in the Lone Star State may soon change, thanks to demographics and a new organizational push.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Home remodeling is hard and nobody knows that better than workers near Florence, Oregon. Three men arrived on the job. KCST radio reports the first man started a fire in the carport to get warm.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm David Greene.

Pearl Cantrell is 105. Naturally, her local TV station, KRBC in Texas, did a feature asking her the secret to longevity. Her answer: Bacon. I eat it every day, she said. Well, this caught the attention of Oscar Meyer.

(SOUNDBITE OF "OSCAR MEYER WEINER SONG")

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (singing) Oh, I'd love to be an Oscar Meyer Weiner...

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news begins with the Dow flying high.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When Charles Ramsey talked with a 911 operator about the woman he'd found, the operator had this question.

(SOUNDBITE OF 911 CALL)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Can you ask her if she needs an ambulance?

CHARLES RAMSEY: You need an ambulance or what? She needs everything. She's in a panic. I bet she's been kidnapped, so you know, put yourself in her shoes.

INSKEEP: Put yourself in her shoes.

NPR's Carrie Johnson reports law enforcement is trying to do just that.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We are getting deeper into the NBA playoffs and the question of the moment: Can the Chicago Bulls really beat the defending champion Miami Heat? The Bulls showed they can do it at least in one game. They won the opener Monday in their second-round series. It was really a stunning result, considering that Chicago is missing several of its best players because of injury and illness.

Tonight, Game 2 in Miami, and NPR's Tom Goldman joins me for some playoff chatter. And, Tom, can I thank you for something?

The Senate is considering legislation to prevent a global helium shortage from worsening in October. That's when one huge supply of helium in the U.S. is set to terminate. The House overwhelmingly passed its own bill last month to keep the Federal Helium Program going.

That was a relief to industries that can't get along without helium. The gas is used in MRI machines, semiconductors, aerospace equipment, lasers and of course balloons.