By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

LEBRON JAMES IS OFFICIALLY A FREE AGENT. EVERYBODY PANIC!!!! #PANIC

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Yup. Probably feels like a Cat 3. RT @hurricanetrack An intensifying hurricane like Alex packs a greater punch than one steady or weakening.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Based on pressure, Alex would’ve been a major hurricane if it had had a few more hours over water for that pressure to translate into winds.

By Brendan Loy

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @JimCantore: Audrey 1957 (Cat4, estimated 946mb) is the strongest June Hurricane on record. #alex is currently @ 947mb !!!! Wow

By Brendan Loy

I confess I haven’t had much time to read up on Hurricane Alex today, but just visually, it looks like it is spinning itself into a tighter, more intense form just as it prepares to come ashore. That’s never good. Intensifying hurricanes are more volatile; higher gusts and such. But I’m talking through my hat on the particulars; it just LOOKS darn impressive.

UPDATE: It has, in fact, intensified; Category 2 now, 100 mph. Looks to me like it will keep strengthening, or at least “tightening,” until land interaction begins in a few hours.

This was posted via iPhone, incidentally. Photo is a cropped screenshot from Kitty Code’s Hurricane app.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @fixfelicia: WV pols weigh moving Byrd special to November: http://wapo.st/bCwT2A

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Updated @fivethirtyeight World Cup odds: Brazil 24.50%, Spain 18.37%, Argentina 18.02%, Uruguay 11.65%, Netherlands 10.61%, Germany 9.62%, Ghana 3.89%, Paraguay 3.33% … I suspect Netherlands would be favored vs. Uruguay in semis, but Uruguay has higher odds because Netherlands has much tougher quarterfinal opponent (Brazil rather than Ghana).

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Heh. RT @friedmanjon: The final episode of Larry King Live better answer all the unanswered questions or I’m gonna be pissed.

By Brendan Loy

“It’s fine to go through life happy…but I suspect we also want to go through life without becoming big fat self-absorbed jackasses. Children really help in that regard. To be sure, there are too many parents who, despite their children, remain narcissistic nimrods. But the nature of parenting is to beat that out of you.” –Tony Woodlief

[Bumped, because it got immediately buried when I posted it Monday morning. -ed.]

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @nprnews: Mad Dash To Beat Homebuyer Tax Credit Deadline http://n.pr/9Pjd30

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @politico: The Senate voted 99-0 to confirm Gen. David Petraeus as U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Gulf beaches hit as distant Hurricane Alex stirs up the sea and pushes oil ashore: http://bit.ly/9GbGhh

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Yankee fan on cell phone catches ground-rule double with his face: http://bit.ly/9GHmdV. BWAHAHAHAHA #fail #yankeessuck

By Brendan Loy

Landfall is expected early tomorrow morning. Winds are “conservatively” estimated at 80 mph, and expected to increase. From the 5am EDT discussion:

VERTICAL SHEAR IS FORECAST TO REMAIN LIGHT UP UNTIL LANDFALL OCCURS IN ABOUT 24 HOURS. GIVEN THAT ALEX IS ALSO MOVING SLOWLY OVER SOME OF THE WARMEST UPPER-OCEAN HEAT CONTENT IN THAT REGION OF THE GULF OF MEXICO…STEADY STRENGTHENING RIGHT UP UNTIL LANDFALL SEEMS REASONABLE. HOWEVER…GIVEN THE RELATIVELY LOW CENTRAL PRESSURE [961 MB, NOW DOWN TO 959 MB] RECENTLY MEASURED BY THE RECON AIRCRAFT…RAPID INTENSIFICATION OF AT LEAST [35 MPH] IN 24 HOURS IS A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY.