The polls just closed in Pennsylvania, home of the Specter-Toomey Senate primary. You can view results here as they come in.

Contrary to previous reports, USA Today says ABC is not going to throw out a number:

Bowl Championship Series officials will have to wait until September to learn what value ABC places on an expanded format that might include a title game after the New Year’s bowls.

At the BCS meetings in Phoenix on Tuesday, ABC senior vice-president Loren Matthews denied a report that ABC was there to offer a huge bid for not only a fifth game but a new separate championship game in a revised BCS deal beginning with the 2006 season.

“These meetings are about potential future formats for the BCS,” Matthews said. “But I read where we’re going to come in with a blockbuster bid. It’s absurd. I have the authority to bid whatever is in my pocket, which is about $20 to $40.”

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Ivan Maisel writes that the “plus-one” proposal is probably unrealistic anyway.

Poetic justice for criminals and terrorists:

A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gunpoint in the Gaza Strip. …

Palestinian security officials said the the gunmen were criminals who were involved in a car theft ring that brought stolen vehicles from Israel to Gaza.

Hamas said the bomber was on his way to try to infiltrate into Israel, accompanied by another Hamas member and a guide, when they were stopped by the armed men.

The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three.

You don’t see me shedding any tears.

Phoenix is the center of the college-football universe today, as the BCS commissioners meet at the Royal Palms Resort — which is roughly 10 miles from my office — and prepare to entertain a “hardball offer” for a championship game after the BCS bowls. The Boston Globe reported on Sunday:

Sources at ABC and within the BCS say television officials are ready to come in with a hardball offer for a “Five Bowl Plus One” plan that would create not only a fifth BCS bowl but a one-game “championship playoff” after the BCS games. …

A source familiar with the ABC proposal said, “They’re going to come in and try and blow people away with a money offer to get this Five Plus One deal done.” …

The catch is that ABC, which controls all four BCS games under the current contract (through the 2005 season), wants exclusive bargaining rights on the deal.

Tranghese says he is not sure that can or should happen.

“That means a long-term commitment [perhaps 10 years] for one network on the main college football bowl games,” said Tranghese. “I have some concerns about that.”

Tranghese added, “I’m almost certain nothing will be decided at the meetings in Phoenix. We might hear some ideas, but I would be very surprised if anything gets done.” (Emphasis added.) Heh. So will we, Mike, so will we.

“Under the system ABC will propose, LSU would have met USC in a one-game playoff” last season, the Globe states. Of course, with the “fifth bowl” that is also being planned, the nation’s other one-loss team, Miami of Ohio, might have beaten somebody good — like, say, Ohio State or Miami of Florida — and therefore might have become a legitimate title contender, leaving the LSU-USC winner to grapple with yet another who’s-the-real-champion argument. A playoff, obviously, is the only real solution to this. But I digress.

ESPN, CNNSI, and BoiFromTroy have coverage as well. This ABC proposal is supposed to be heard sometime this afternoon, so today could be a big day in college football history. Stay tuned.

Lunch-break update, Tuesday, April 27, 2004… “hot heat” edition…

Heat wave strikes Southern California: The “downtown” Los Angeles weather station (on the USC campus) reached a record high of 99 degrees yesterday, easily topping the previous record, 91. Long Beach hit 101, shattering the old record of 89. West Hollywood hit 98, and BoiFromTroy is hot. (Erm, not like that. I mean, maybe he is, but I don’t play for that team. Not that there’s anything wr… oh, nevermind. :)

Yesterday was also Phoenix’s hottest day of the year so far — though not as hot at USC! — as the mercury hit 98 degrees here. And the forecast calls for another 98-degree day today. So, will Phoenix have its first 100-degree day in April? It looks like today might be our last, best chance to reach triple-digits before the new month begins Saturday. (The forecast calls for 96 tomorrow, and then low 90s for the rest of the week.) Right now, it’s 93. Stay tuned.

The heat is on Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter (like the segue?) as he faces a tough primary challenge from a conservative Republican today.

The U.S. will be able to deflect North Korean missiles by the end of the year. Maybe.

Or maybe we’ll use blimps. Big Brother wants to watch you from 100,000 feet using an airship 25 times the size of the Goodyear blimp. Doubleplusgood or doubleplusungood? We report, you decide.

An NYU student who was living in the library basement has been evicted from his “home” after campus officials discovered his blog, www.homelessatnyu.com. Note to self: when squatting illegally in subterranean lair, do not publish location on the Internet.

Breaking news: Explosions in Syria.

That’s all for now.

UPDATE: CNN reports:

An hour-long battle between police and gunmen broke out Tuesday in downtown Damascus, the capital of Syria, killing at least one passer-by and injuring several others, according to Syrian television and other sources.

At least one attacker was killed and one wounded, according to the Syrian ambassador to the United States.

At least six explosions preceded the gunfire at about 8 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) in an area between the Iranian and Canadian embassies and near the residence of the British ambassador to Syria, according to witnesses.

Syrian TV quoted security sources as saying a “group of terrorists engaged in random fire with Syrian security forces.”

“Kerry is a terrible, terrible, terrible candidate,” declares the New York Post’s John Podhoretz. “Guys, you should have gone with John Edwards.”

Mickey Kaus refers to this reality with the frequently repeated headline, “Uh-oh, We’ve Nominated a Turkey.” In his latest post, he agrees with Podhoretz and wonders, “At what point do Democrats begin to consider that they haven’t nominated this guy yet?”

What should I be rooting for: that Kerry somehow overcomes his inherent flaws and magically becomes a good candidate, or that he somehow screws up so badly that the Dems really do begin to consider nominating someone else in July? [”Hill-a-ry! Hill-a-ry!” -ed.]

Where have you gone, Alexandra Polier?

UPDATE: On second thought, a Polier-like scandal probably wouldn’t convince the delegates to deny him the nomination. These are Democrats, after all. :) We need something really, really scandalous: like, say, evidence that Kerry cheated on his wife… with Barney Frank.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Good doggie:

I’ve just uploaded some new photos to the Cats, Birds & Dog library. Very cute.

Also newly online: photos from our boat ride on Saguaro Lake yesterday. Dr. Zak took Becky and me for a cruise on the Desert Belle. Very fun!

The scenery was gorgeous — we got a beautiful view of the Phoenix Valley’s signature Four Peaks (above), and many other vistas — and we saw wildlife, too: a blue heron, and better yet, a bald eagle! (His head is the tiny white speck in the middle of the photo.)

Full gallery here!

UPDATE: Just uploaded nine more iPhoto/Gallery photo albums: the first eight galleries from my Summer 2003 collection (including 204 pictures of Becky’s and my May road trip), plus one leftover Spring 2003 gallery that I had previously forgotten to upload: Goodbyes & Packing. Check ‘em out!

As of this evening, the American flag at the McDonald’s on the corner of Power and McKellips is back at full-staff:

This despite the fact that another McDonald’s executive — the founder of the company’s presence in Japan — died of another heart problem. (No word on whether the Japanese flag is at half-staff on McDonald’s restaurants in Japan.)

Not that you care anymore. Hell, not that I care anymore. BrendanLoy.com: McDonald’s-flag-related news is so last week; now your #1 source for controversial-French-label-related news.

Labelgate update: Agence France-Presse reports that sales for bags with French text on the label proclaiming “We’re sorry our president is an idiot. We didn’t vote for him” have doubled, while the company producing them has received “varied reactions” — including “hate mail from a French citizen who thought the label was addressed to Jacques Chirac.” Ha!

The company itself declares, “Everyone seems to have a ‘president’ that they think is an idiot. Take your pick: Jacques Chirac, Bill Clinton, George Bush.” Company president Tom Bihn told AFP, “It depends on either your nationality, or the president you think is an idiot; you choose.”

Actually, it’s Bihn himself who was the original “idiot,” according to the company website:

The “secret” message began as an inside joke among seamstresses and staff at the Tom Bihn factory, and was apparently intended to poke fun at company’s founder and president, Tom Bihn.

Heh.

You can buy the various controversially-labeled products here. The infamous label is also now available in t-shirt form.

Weight Watchers, Catholicism and marriage: “discarded thoughts” worth reading on Becky’s blog.

Becky also posted yesterday on the SHA girl blog, about a particularly heinous injustice in the “war on drugs.”

Elsewhere in the Brendansphere, ChrisTheBear continues to give us a inside peek at the stress and drama that is final exams at Baylor Law School. And Adrienne needs cheering up. (Well, okay, she needed cheering up like a week ago. But hey, I’m just getting caught up here.)

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Just four brief items today, before I focus on eating…

1. Fark’s take on the Kerry medal controversy: “I did not have sex with those medals…er, ribbons, uh, woman.” Heh.

2. In a related story, the publisher has revealed that Bill Clinton’s memoirs are due out in late June. The new Harry Potter movie, due out June 4, will still be the most-anticipated event of the month, however.

3. Some blogger has screenshots (apparently real!) of Google’s Gmail. (Hat tip: Dane.)

4. Last but not least, it seems the outcome of the presidential election hinges on the Oct. 31 football game between Green Bay and Washington. (Hat tip: the John Kerry blog.) Well, all I can say is: GOOOOOO PACKERS!!!!

UPDATE: I can’t resist adding a fifth item for this story: a man in Mexico was so drunk, he slept through being run over by a train! The man was fine; the train’s undercarriage missed him by a few inches. He woke up much later, once paramedics were already on the scene.

“I counted only six beers,” a bewildered Lozano Lopez told local newspaper El Norte. “But who knows how many more there might have been. I don’t remember.”

Heh.

CNN has yet to elaborate on its week-old “breaking news,” but it appears the new development is that the terrorist at the center of the plot has confessed on Jordanian state television.

The would-be mass murderer, Hussein Sharif, says “he was acting on the orders of a man believed to be al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Iraq,” according to CBS News. He also revealed that the terrorists were hoping to kill 80,000 people, rather than the meager 20,000 previously reported.

A quote from Tony Blair in October 2001 — back when we still thought the 9/11 death toll was around 7,000 — comes to mind: “They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000, does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it?”

CORRECTION & UPDATE: It previously said above that Azmi al-Jayousi is the terrorist whose confession was aired today. In fact, al-Jayousi is the alleged (and still wanted) mastermind of the plot, but it is Hussein Sharif whose confession was aired.

Anyway, CNN’s full article is finally up:

Jordanian authorities said Monday they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan’s capital, Amman.

The plot would have been more deadly than anything al Qaeda has done before, including the September 11 attacks, according to the Jordanian government. …

U.S. intelligence officials expressed caution about whether the chemicals captured by Jordanian authorities were intended to create a “toxic cloud” chemical weapon, but they said the large quantities involved were at a minimum intended to create “massive explosions.” …

At issue is the presence of a large quantity of sulfuric acid among the tons of chemicals seized by Jordanian authorities. Sulfuric acid can be used as a blister agent, but it more commonly can increase the size of conventional explosions, according to U.S. officials.

Nevertheless, U.S. intelligence officials called the capture of tons of chemicals that together could create several large conventional explosions “a big deal.”

Hussein Sharif himself says that the mastermind, al-Zarqawi, “told me that this will be the first chemical attack that al Qaeda will execute.” Of course, one always has to take terrorists’ own statements with a grain of salt.

But according to CNN, “Jordanian authorities said the attack would have mixed a combination of 71 lethal chemicals, which they said has never been done before, including blistering agents to cause third-degree burns, nerve gas and choking agents.”

It strikes me that mixing a whole bunch of chemicals together would actually have rather unpredictable results… wouldn’t it? Might various chemical reactions — catalyzed by the heat of the explosion — change the nature of the “chemical cloud” in ways that the terrorists themselves probably wouldn’t be able to anticipate?

Ah, well, blame it on the “fog of war.” It at least seems clear that the Jordanians believe there was more than sulfuric acid involved here. I wonder what is causing the apparent disconnect between their assessment and ours.

In other WMD-related news, there was some rather suspicious goings-on in Iraq today. A booby-trapped chemical weapons compound, perhaps?

I bought my digital camera one year ago today!

Here are some of my earliest images with the camera, which is a Canon PowerShot A60. I have taken a total of 13,046 pictures in the last year, which is an average of 36 pictures per day — one every 40 minutes (including sleep time).

I’ve saved just over 10,000 of those photos (6,896 MB), which is substantially less than the 21,334 photos I took and saved with my first digital camera — but I had that one, a Mavica, for more than three years (before we accidentally ran over it with Becky’s car :).

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