After the jump, a random 24-related thought, followed by some spoileriffic humor. Well, it’s spoileriffic if you haven’t seen Monday night’s episode. My initial “random thought” isn’t spoileriffic unless you’re several episodes behind.

P.S. As you may have noticed, I’ve finally given 24 its own blog category.

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More apparent British hardening and Iranian softening of their respective lines on the kidnapped-soldier kerfuffle:

Britain said it was freezing talks on all other issues with Iran until it freed 15 Royal Navy crew members seized last week, and the British military released what it said was proof its boats were within Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.

Iran’s foreign minister said meanwhile a female British sailor held captive by Iran may be released later Wednesday or on Thursday, a Turkish TV station reported.

“The woman soldier is free either today or tomorrow,” CNN-Turk television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on the sidelines of an Arab summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, Drudge now has a siren for the headline: “Iran TV to air footage of captured Britons.” Will they be paraded around blindfolded and subjected to a mock execution this time? And then there’s this:

Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran’s borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

Dunno how much to make of that (a commenter points out that the Russian media has a reputation for reporting bizarre “news” stories, like UFO crashes), but certainly, these are perilous times.

More from the first article after the jump.

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Seriously!

On the bright side, Gina was actually really good.

Not as freaky-deaky as last week’s sexy performance, but much better vocally. Even Simon was impressed!

UPDATE: Haley’s friends need to shut up!

UPDATE 2: Okay, time to cast your votes, American Idol pool contestants. Who’s going home this week? Leave ‘em in comments. (Current standings here.)

[Bumped to top. -ed.]

P.S. Here’s a good, funny wrap-up of last night’s show.

P.P.S. Even Matt Drudge is making fun of Sanjaya now. Heh.

Remember back in 1996, when the men’s Final Four was #4-seed Syracuse vs. #5-seed Mississippi State in one semifinal, and #1-seed Kentucky vs. #1-seed UMass in the other? It caused all sorts of harumphing about how the Kentucky-UMass game was the “real” championship game, how the NCAA should “re-seed the Final Four,” etc. And then Syracuse proceeded to put a hell of a scare into Kentucky before Petino’s Wildcats did indeed cut down the nets.

Well, this year’s women’s bracket is somewhat similar to that. In the one semifinal, you have #3-seed LSU vs. #4-seed Rutgers. In the other, #1-seed North Carolina takes on #1-seed Tennessee. No doubt, many pundits will declare Tar Heels vs. Lady Vols to be the “real” championship game, and certainly its winner will be the heavy title-game favorite. But don’t sleep on C. Vivian Stringer’s Scarlet Knights, nor on the Pokey-less Tigers under interim head coach Bob “Ken Starr” Starkey — who is, after all, the only undefeated head coach in Division I basketball at the moment, with a 4-0 career record. :)

Another interesting note about the women’s bracket: on Selection Monday, there was a lot of talk about how brutal the Dayton Region was, with defending champion Maryland the #2 seed, Oklahoma the #3, Ohio State the #4, and a highly-regarded Middle Tennessee State team the #5. But as it turns out, #1-seed Tennessee had a pretty freakin’ smooth ride to the Final Four. They played a #16 seed, a #8, a #13 and a #7 en route to Cleveland (the #13 seed, Marist, upset Ohio State and MTSU, while the #7, Ole Miss, took care of Maryland and OU), and barely broke a sweat in the process, winning every game by at least 14 points (with an average margin of 27). Maybe karma is rewarding Pat Summitt for that awesome cheerleader stunt.

For the second straight year, Gary Kirby heads into the NIT championship game with a chance to win the BrendanLoy.com NIT Pool — if only the finalist from the state of South Carolina will lose this time.

Last year, Kirby (a.k.a. “gahrie”), a member of the University of Southern California Class of 1987, went from odds-on favorite to runner-up because South Carolina won the title. This year, he needs West Virginia to beat Clemson on Thursday in order to win the pool; if Clemson wins, he’ll finish second again.

If the Palmetto State again reigns supreme, Colleen Duggan will win the pool. Duggan knows a thing or two about basketball: she was a four-year Division I varsity player at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, and is now an assistant coach at Trinity College in Hartford. Before all that, she was a student and basketball player at Newington High School from 1997-1999, then transferred to St. Paul Catholic High School, where she won a state championship — and was named Most Valuable Player of the title game — in 2001, her senior year.

Here are the complete standings if West Virginia wins and the complete standings if Clemson wins. Complete current standings can be found here and after the jump.

Yesterday’s results eliminated Cam Thomas, a Michigan senior who found the NIT pool via Mgoblog’s link, and Dana O’Shea, a TCU grad and a resident of Oldsmar, FL who was referred to the pool by a friend.

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It seems 2007 is the year of wide-open Living Room Times pools.

Two days after the 12th annual men’s pool set the record for most contestants still alive heading into the Final Four with six, the 10th annual women’s pool tied that record last night.

Tom Greca, designer of this year’s pool logo, was the only contestant mathematically eliminated when #1 seeds North Carolina and Tennessee won their regional finals. Still alive: Josh Krause (currently in the lead), Rick Boeckler (currently 4th), Scott Fort (T-5th), Jennifer Elam (T-7th), Daniel Port (T-20th) and Brian Dupuis (T-20th).

Complete standings and scenarios after the jump.

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Anyone who’s spent any appreciable amount of time with me has probably seen me jot something down in a 5-inch-by-3-inch, side-bound CVS pocket memo book. I virtually always have one in my right pants pocket, with a pen (usually a blue Paper Mate) tucked into the wire binding, ready at a moment’s notice to record whatever relevant (or irrelevant) information I might feel like writing down. And I have no compunction about whipping out the notebook in virtually any situation or location: at school, at the grocery store, at a bar, wherever. Like my digital camera, I’ll bring it — and use it — almost anywhere. So when somebody asks, “Does anyone have a pen and paper?,” I’m the guy who is always able to answer “yes.” Just as my Papa Loy had his trademark 3×5 cards, I have my trademark CVS notebooks. I’ve been using them since middle school, and even when I went to journalism school at USC and became acquainted with the much larger reporter’s notebooks that are a near-universal tool of the trade, I still kept using my CVS memo books. Likewise, despite the endless advance of technological gadgetry, I’ve never seen fit to replace my trusty notebooks with something new and shiny like a PDA. The little notebooks work just fine, thank you.

Despite their small size and my tendency to lose things, I’m usually pretty good about keeping track of my CVS notebooks, which is important, as they quickly become invaluable little collections of miscellaneous knowledge, making them quite irreplaceable if they’re lost. So it was with considerable chagrin that I greeted the news last night that my current CVS memo book had met a rather unfortunate fate: death by washing machine.

I had accidentally left the notebook in the front pouch of my Gonzaga sweatshirt, and didn’t realize it until the washer had completed a full cycle, and I opened its door to discover those little white pieces of fluff all over my clothes. They represent the soggy, shredded, half-dissolved remnants of nearly 100 sheets of 5×3 lined paper.

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Apparently, setting up a new government in Northern Ireland and trying to secure the release of 15 soldiers kidnapped by Iran isn’t enough for Tony Blair to consider his plate full. He’s also pushing for stronger U.N. action in Darfur:

Tony Blair is pushing the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone over Darfur, enforced if necessary by the bombing of Sudanese military airfields used for raids on the province, the Guardian has learned.

The controversial initiative comes as a classified new report by a UN panel of experts alleges Sudan has violated UN resolutions by moving arms into Darfur, conducting overflights and disguising its military planes as UN humanitarian aircraft.

Mr Blair has been pushing for much tougher international action against Sudan since President Omar Hassan al-Bashir reneged earlier this month on last November’s agreement to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur to protect civilians. …

Speaking in Berlin on Sunday, Mr Blair described the situation in Darfur as “intolerable” and said: “We need to consider a no-fly zone to prevent the use of Sudanese air power against refugees and displaced people.”

According to Downing Street, he is pushing for a no-fly zone to be passed at the same time as the new sanctions package, in the form of a ‘Chapter 7′ security council resolution, allowing the use of force.

I wonder how folks who are both anti-genocide and “anti-war in principle” will react to this move.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

The NIT Final Four is tonight at Madison Square Garden, with West Virginia playing Mississippi State at 7:00 PM and Clemson playing Air Force at 9:00 PM. Both games are on ESPN2.

If Mississippi State and Air Force win, Dana O’Shea will clinch the 3rd annual BrendanLoy.com NIT Pool. In all other scenarios, Gary Kirby (gahrie) and one other contestant will remain alive heading into the title game: O’Shea if West Virginia and Air Force win, Colleen Duggan if West Virginia and Clemson win, or Cam Thomas if Mississippi State and Clemson win. Full scenario info here.

O’Shea is a TCU grad and a resident of Oldsmar, FL who found the NIT pool through a friend. Kirby is a long-time Irish Trojan reader and a USC Class of 1987 alum who finished second in last year’s NIT pool. Duggan is a former Sacred Heart women’s basketball player and a current Trinity College assistant coach who went to Newington High School with pool administrator Brendan Loy. Thomas is a senior at the University of Michigan who found the NIT pool via Mgoblog’s link.

Also tonight, at 7 and 9 on ESPN, are the last two regional finals in the women’s NCAA Tournament. Pool scenarios for those games can be found here.

UPDATE: West Virginia wins on a three-pointer at the buzzer, so Cam Thomas is eliminated and Gary Kirby is safe for today. It now comes down to Dana O’Shea vs. Colleen Duggan in terms of who else will stay alive heading into the title game: O’Shea if Air Force wins the second semifinal, Duggan is Clemson wins.

And in the women’s tourney, Tennessee routed Ole Miss, mathematically eliminating no one. The Purdue-UNC game will eliminate at least one contestant, though: Tom Greca if the Tar Heels win, Rick Boeckler, Jennifer Elam and Daniel Port if the Boilermakers win.

Considering I’m a political junkie who will soon be living in Tennessee, I’d probably better post something about the Fred Thompson boomlet that’s been shaking up the Republican presidential race in recent days. Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit, a Knoxville guy, has been all over the story, and now the polls are showing that Thompson — who isn’t even officially running — has become a factor, possibly at the expense of Giuliani and Romney. That last link is on Drudge, with a photo of Thompson. So this is officially getting interesting. Of course, it’s ridiculously early, and nobody knows how this will all play out… but Republicans do appear to be itching for a better choice than the ones they’ve got now. And it wouldn’t be the first time in American political history that from Nashville came a dark horse riding up.

Former LSU head coach Pokey Chatman, who resigned in a lesbian sex scandal just prior to the NCAA Tournament, will receive a $70,000 bonus because her replacement, interim head coach Bob Starkey (who looks like Kenneth Starr), led the Lady Tigers to the Final Four in her absence. Not a bad deal for Pokey.

Willis McGahee, newly traded from the Bills to the Ravens, is telling Buffalo how he really feels about it:

“Coming from Miami, I was used to partying, going out, just having something to do every night. Restaurants, whatever. Going to Buffalo, it was like hitting a brick wall. Like, ‘Damn!’ Can’t go out, can’t do nothing. There’s an Applebee’s, a TGI Friday’s, and they just got a Dave & Busters. They got that, and I’m like, ‘What the?’ And, you know, the women …

“You see, when I was in college that’s what I used to thrive off of,” the 25-year-old says. “The better you do, the more fame you get. So you know, it was like, I was used to that. And then you get to Buffalo and no matter how you do, it’s the same. It’s no big city. You know what I did every day? I came home and played video games.”

Says Bfloblog: “In actuality, Willis just wasn’t right for Buffalo. You see, we happen to be a town full of hard-working people, who can’t understand why someone wouldn’t train in the offseason because he’s having a temper-tantrum over what team drafted him. Actually, the Bills were the team that took the chance on him, and paid him gobs of money to rehab for an entire additional season, then watch him jake it the rest of his time here. No, that definitely isn’t right for Buffalo. … I’m proud Willis McGahee didn’t like Buffalo, because we sure as Hell don’t need attitudes like that here.”

Is Tony Blair preparing to follow dcl’s advice? At first blush, it sounds like he’s stepping up the warmongering:

Efforts to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran will enter a “different phase” if diplomatic moves fail, Tony Blair has said. …

“These people have to be released,” the prime minister told GMTV.

“What we are trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them.

“I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase.”

Apparently, though, “different phrase” simply means more harshly-worded memos and such:

The prime minister’s official spokesman said Mr Blair’s remarks about a “different phase” did not refer to any extreme diplomatic action, such as expelling Iranian diplomats from Britain or military action.

“We have been clearly stating that we are utterly certain that the personnel were in Iraqi waters.

“We so far have not made explicit why we know that, because we don’t want to escalate this.”

Britain’s former ambassador to Iran, Sir Richard Dalton, said “different phase” could mean generating pressure on Iran from the international community.

“I expect he means that we shall have to step up criticism and generate additional international pressures on Iran,” he said.

“It could be that they think that by dramatising the fact that these people were taken on an international mission while in Iraqi waters even further, will give Iran pause and give them a chance to rethink.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. is conducing war games in a show of force in the Gulf.

In honor of last night’s episode of 24, I give you… Project Chloe!

No, Project Chloe is not some sort of computer-nerd version of Jack Bauer Kill Count. It’s actually a real-world U.S. military program that would involve both aerial drones and giant lasers. So basically, this is Gredenko meets Dr. Evil. To which I can only say: Awesome. (Hat tip: Dave Barry.)

With apologies to Eric Maynor, Ron Lewis and Jeff Green, the two most incredible basketball moments in the month of March haven’t come from the NCAA Tournament. One of them was the ending of the Division II championship game on Saturday. The other occurred last night in Auburn Hills, in an NBA game between the Nuggets and Pistons, courtesy of Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace. Here’s how SportsCenter summed things up:

A 60-foot, game-tying buzzer-beater. Wow. Just wow. That’s the sort of shot that makes the highlight reels when it comes at the halftime buzzer. But at the end of regulation, to send a game to overtime? Says AOL Fanhouse: “That … just … doesn’t … happen. Ever.”

Oh yeah, and the Pistons clinched a spot in the playoffs with the win.