Website changes have taken a back seat to March Madness in recent weeks, but I wanted to get the ball rolling again (er, so to speak) with a question for y’all…

A number of people in recent days have reported problems with my new WordPress commenting system. Specifically, people keep saying that it has mysteriously swallowed portions of certain comments. I also know of at least two people who have been unable to comment at all while using AOL’s browser. So, I’m just wondering… how many people have experienced these, or other, commenting problems? How often? What are the problems? When they occurred, were you commenting via the pop-up window from the homepage, or via the comment entry form on the permalink page? I’d like to get a sense for how well this comment thingy is working for everyone, and what needs to be fixed/improved.

Also, supposing I can figure out a way to make the pop-up comment window resizable on all browsers, if you had a choice between that and a direct link to the comment area on the permalink page, which would you prefer? Now, same question, except suppose I’m not able to figure out a way to make the pop-up comment window resizable on all browsers. What then?

This story strikes me as extremely odd, but I’m sure some of y’all will have something to say about it. So, have at it. More here.

Besides, having a post with the title “Britney Spears nude” is sure to bring in some additional web traffic. :) Just to make for more unique search possibilities, perhaps I should mention Jenna Jameson, too. (Link SFW — it actually goes to a fairly interesting, Arizona-related news story. Background info here and here. The first background link includes the following quote from Jameson: “There is never anything tawdry or seedy about anything I do.” Heh.)

There, that oughta produce some serious search engine hits. :)

UPDATE: Follow-up post here.

Another severe cyclone, right on the borderline of Category 4 and Category 5, is bearing down on Australia, this time on the northwest coast, home to lots of big oil and mining operations. This one’s name is Glenda — the bad witch, I’m afraid. The Storm Track has more, including a track map and satellite images — and the good news that cooler water offshore is likely to prevent the city of Learmonth from experiencing a truly catastrophic hit. “The city is likely to experience a strong cyclone landfall, but not the devestating impacts of a category 5 cyclone.”

Melanie? Where are you? We need an update from our resident Aussie! :)

Again, WTF?

Casey reviews “Why We Fight.” My favorite line: “By the end of the film, the viewer is now dealing with the ‘thinktank-congressional-military-industrial complex’ which is conspiring to subvert democracy and fight perpetual war, apparently through the use of hyphens.” Heh.

Okay, is anybody else watching the McDonald’s All-American basketball game on ESPN (yeah, I’m desperate)… and if so, are you bothered, like I am, by the GIANT FREAKING MCDONALD’S LOGO in the middle of the court, which, aside from being so excessive as to be laughable, also completely obscures the half-court line for about 70% of the court?? Granted, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to call a backcourt violation in the McDonald’s All-American game (hell, they don’t even call those with 1.9 seconds left in NCAA regional final games… not that I’m bitter), but this seems to be a trend. I noticed the same thing with the (not quite as) giant Missouri Valley Conference logo at the Savvis Center in St. Louis (see here). How are the players or referees supposed to know where the backcourt begins, if there’s no half-court line?

Breaking news: “ESPN has learned that George Mitchell, former U.S. Senate majority leader from Maine, will be hired by Major League Baseball to head an investigation into past steroid use by major-league players, most prominently Barry Bonds.”

“It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.” Heh.

SpaceWeather.com has some spectacular photos of today’s total solar eclipse: one shows the Moon’s shadow as seen from space, and a pair of before-and-after picturesM show how dark Goreme, Turkey got during totality. More pics here.

P.S. Meanwhile, the latest AP article by reporter Kwasi Kpodo has removed the blatantly incorrect statement “the corona’s light can burn eyes,” but it is still misleading:

“Imagine if your hair was to stand up from static electricity, that’s kind of what the corona looks like all around the sun,” Young said. But directly looking at the sun can damage the eyes without proper protection.

Yes, directly looking at the sun can damage the eyes — except during totality, which is the ONLY time that one can see “what the corona looks like.” So even though the sentence about eye damage is independently correct, placing it immediately after that quote about the corona makes it essentially wrong. The AP is still, despite my e-mail more than 24 hours ago pointing out their error, materially contributing to the counterfactual “popular beliefâ€? mentioned in this Wikipedia article. One would think they’d be averse to passing off urban legends as “news,” but apparently they don’t care.

Tonight, for the first time since the day after Selection Sunday, there is no college basketball! None! No NCAA men’s or women’s action, no NIT, not even any WNIT!

Tomorrow is the NIT title game, Friday is the WNIT title game (Kansas State vs. Marquette; thrilling, I know), and Saturday the “real” tournaments get started up again. But tonight? Nada! Oh, the humanity! What am I supposed to do with myself? :)

NYU won’t tolerate public display and discussion of something it deems intolerant, even if some might reasonably disagree. Dissent from NYU’s position on what constitutes “tolerance” will not be tolerated. After all, we must be tolerant!

Seriously, how farcical is it that, in the name of “tolerance,” not just newspapers but major academic institutions are now forbidding people from having open and fully informed discussions about important social and political topics? (And if you think it’s possible to be “fully informed” about the Muhammad cartoons without looking at them… well… I can’t help you.)

In an article published yesterday morning, Editor & Publisher provides confirmation that indeed, I am a nominee for Blogger of the Year in The Week’s third annual “opinion awards.” (I previously knew about this only through a fellow nominee’s second-hand report; see here.)

It’s a really cool honor to be nominated, but, um, is it weird that no one has, like, contacted me about this? That I found out about it only by chance, because one of my fellow nominees linked to me while discussing it on his blog, and I noticed the link in my traffic stats? That I received confirmation of my nomination only through a Google News search for “blogger of the year”?

Anyway, the lack of contact would seem to suggest that I’m not actually going to win, considering that, according to E & P, “Winners will be honored at an event in Washington, D.C. on April 4″ — coincidentally my fourth blogaversary. Here’s more on the event, which says it’s “by invitation only.” Presumably, if I were invited to an event in D.C. next Tuesday, I’d know about it by now. :)

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Like I said, being nominated is awesome, and I didn’t seriously expect to win. (Though I’ll admit to being mildly disappointed that I don’t get to attend an event at which one of my senators*, Chris Dodd, is the keynote speaker, and the panel discussion is on the topic: “Covering the Presidency: Are White House Correspondents Real Journalists?”) It just seems a little odd that nobody’s contacted me, that’s all.

*Well, technically Evan Bayh and Dick Lugar are “my senators”… soon to be supplanted by John McCain and Jon Kyl… but in my heart I’m still a Nutmegger, not a Hoosier, so I feel more attachment to Dodd and (especially) Lieberman than Bayh or Lugar.

P.S. Hmm… thinking this through… if only the winning blogger is invited… how on earth do they prevent that blogger from revealing the result on his/her blog, in advance? It’s generally fairly difficult to convince bloggers to “sit on” a story. If someone called me up tomorrow and said, “Brendan Loy, you’re the Blogger of the Year, and you’re going to Disney World Washington, D.C.,” I’d sure as heck blog about it! I suppose if they specifically asked me not to say that I won, I’d probably be willing to oblige, but I’d certainly feel obligated to at least tell my readers, “Umm… I’m going to D.C. next week… can’t really tell you why, but um… stay tuned.” And that would pretty much give away the ghost to those in the know, wouldn’t it? But then, I guess this isn’t exactly the Oscars, secrecy-wise…

P.P.S. Wonkette suggests “an eating contest between Arianna Huffington and Michelle Malkin for Blogger of the Year.” Heh. Well, if it’s to be decided by an eating contest, I would definitely lose. Unless maybe we’re eating brussel sprouts, as I believe I’m the only person in America who seriously loves brussel sprouts.

He got the minimum: five years and 10 months in prison.

The unsightly Bruin nonsense is gone from the top of the homepage, per the terms of the bet. Phew!

The UCLA jersey photo remains until Saturday, but I feel better already. :)

“WWE: Illegal Mexican Wrestlers Taking Smackdowns American Wrestlers Don’t Want.”