An apparent car fire has stopped traffic dead on the 40 East between Nashville and Knoxville. Looks like it just happened; cops are just arriving. Hope everyone's okay.

UPDATE, 10:02 PM EDT: The accident has set off a sizeable brush fire along the righthand side of the road, and the authorites seem pretty busy fighting the fire(s) at the moment, so I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon.

UPDATE, 10:18 PM: I walked up maybe a mile from where we’re stopped, and took some pictures. Click any image for the full-size verison.

UPDATE, 10:53 PM: We’re moving!

UPDATE, 10:57 PM: The fire was started by a truck hauling maybe 10 cars!! That would explain the size of the fire! Wow… all (or at least nearly all) the cars were toast.

The fire appeared to be out as we drove by.

P.S. As I was walking up toward the scene (I never got closer than maybe a couple hundred yards away — didn’t want to interfere with the police or put myself in danger), I overheard a bystander relaying a second-hand report of “cars exploding.” I dismissed it as unreliable hearsay, a result of the old “playing telephone” problem, which is very common in situations like that… but given that it was a car hauler that apparently started the fire, the report actually makes sense. A fire could easily have set off a chain reaction, causing multiple cars to explode, or at least to rapidly and dramatically go up in flames. It was dark when we drove by, but some of those cars appeared to have very little of ‘em left.

P.P.S. Welcome, InstaPundit readers! Shortly after publishing the photos, I link-whored this post to Glenn (figuring, correctly, that Tennessee News + Citizen Journalism = Instalanche), and I also e-mailed various Nashville and Knoxville TV stations, and the Tennessean. A reporter for the latter promptly returned my call and interviewed me by phone about the accident. I don’t know if I said anything interesting enough to make the paper, though.

UPDATE, 11:34 PM: Hey, on second thought, the article is online, and I am indeed quoted:

Smith County Police are responding to a wreck on Interstate 40 east near mile marker 262. The eastbound lanes were closed for over an hour, and emergency workers have just reopened the left lane.

The accident was caused by an 18-wheeler hauling cars that caught fire at about 8 p.m. Brendan Loy was on the way from the Nashville airport to Knoxville with his wife when they were caught in the traffic and sat still for an hour and 40 minutes, he said.

“People didn’t know what was going on and obviously wanted to get some kind of information,” he said. Loy said he couldn’t tell whether anyone was hurt, but that it looked like the majority of the fire was in the cars on the back of the trailer.

“I didn’t really get a real good view of [the] cab, but it didn’t look like that was as charred as those cars were,” he said. Police could not confirm whether there were any injuries.

I didn’t get a photo of the car hauler as we drove by, but I did take video out the window. It was dark, but I’ll post it later if it shows anything worthwhile.

UPDATE, 11:45 PM: Those who aren’t BrendanLoy.com regulars may be wondering how I am blogging all this while in the car. (As I type right now, we’re 65 miles out of Knoxville.) I have a magical Sprint phone that I can use as a modem for my laptop, giving me virtually unlimited, albeit slow, Internet access from just about anywhere for a mere $15 a month. As a result, I routinely surf the Internet from the car while Becky is driving. That’s how I added all the updates to this post. (The original post, with just the camera-phone pic and the brief caption below it, was posted directly from Becky’s phone, without use of my laptop. But then I hooked up the laptop to my “modem” phone and added all the updates, and uploaded the large photos.)

UPDATE, 12:06 AM: The above-linked Tennessean article is now using one of my photos! Also, apparently one of my photos was featured on the 10:00 News on WSMV Channel 4, Nashville’s NBC affiliate.

UPDATE, 12:30 AM: Almost home… finally.

Several small bugs, attracted by the light of my computer screen when we were stopped along the highway with our windows open, have hitched a ride to Knoxville with us. They’re still crawling around the computer screen as I type this. When the doors open, they’ll find themselves very far from home. Heh.

More photos after the jump!

(more…)

The rare News story with a Happy ending :} ~

TORRINGTON, Conn. — A 10-foot-long yellow anaconda that escaped from its owner’s apartment more than a week ago didn’t get too far.

The snake, named Ana, was found alive in the basement of the apartment building on Birge Street Saturday by a state Department of Environmental Protection conservation officer. It had been missing since May 15.

…Officials warned neighbors to stay away from the snake if they came across it, because of its sharp teeth. Authorities were also concerned that the reptile would not survive long because of the cold nights.

Police Chief Robert Milano said possessing anacondas is only illegal when they create a nuisance to other animals…

Beauchesne gave the snake, which had its own room in his apartment and ate whole rotisserie chickens, to Massachusetts-based Rainforest Reptile Shows after it was found.

Although the foregoing excerpt is only slightly Constricted, here’s where you can writhe the whole Skinny, unless of course you conda Shed your ancient ancestral Fears & inhibitions. ;>

Specifically, new sanctions against Sudan:

President Bush imposed sanctions Tuesday against Sudan in reaction to the “genocide” in Darfur, and has ordered actions against 31 companies and three people — preventing them from doing business in or with U.S. companies.

The three Sudanese people affected include two high-ranking government officials and a rebel leader, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. They were targeted for their roles in fomenting violence and human rights abuses in Darfur, the agency said.

“For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians.

“My administration has called these actions by their rightful name, genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it,” Bush said.

Bush said he had ordered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to write up a draft resolution that will be presented to the U.N. Security Council.

We had a very nice visit with the Santa Barbarians. :) Here’s me and Becky with Kaja, Jen and Sören on Stearns Wharf:

And here’s a shot of Kaja being grumpy:

Awww.

Jerry Falwell’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave but his soul goes marching on ~ in Poland (!):

A senior Polish official has ordered psychologists to investigate whether the popular BBC TV show Teletubbies promotes a homosexual lifestyle.

The spokesperson for children’s rights in Poland, Ewa Sowinska, singled out Tinky Winky, the purple character with a triangular aerial on his head.

“I noticed he was carrying a woman’s handbag,” she told a magazine. “At first, I didn’t realise he was a boy.”

…Poland’s authorities have recently initiated a series of moves to outlaw the promotion of homosexuality among the nation’s children.

Tinky Winky’s psychological evaluation is being treated fairly light-heartedly by many people here.

One radio station asked its listeners to vote for the most suspicious children’s show. Some e-mailed in, saying that Winnie the Pooh had only male friends.

…Last month the European Union singled out Poland for criticism in its resolution condemning homophobia in the 27-member bloc.

Read the whole sillyarse thing.

Meanwhile, in a more Ominous report from the Motherland of Poland’s most-Recent former imperial Masters,

A gay rights demonstration in Moscow degenerated into violence for the second year running as right-wing and orthodox extremists attacked gay rights activists and supporters of the unauthorised demonstration.

GayRussia leader Nikolai Alexeyev was bundled into a police van and driven away moments after arriving outside the offices of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who has called homosexuals “satanic”.

…”What we have is authoritarianism and we are moving towards totalitarianism,” said Lydia Hmelevskaya, a 24-year-old lesbian.

“I have been beaten up on a train because of the way I look. I have the right to look the way I want to.”

…On numerous occasions, nationalists circled gay rights activists as they spoke with journalists, then reached in to punch or kick the person being interviewed.

One journalist was attacked because he wore an earring, which led nationalists to say he was gay.

Police intervened to arrest dozens of gay rights activists and only rarely detained their attackers.

Here’s the whole Unfunny thing.