As I mentioned before, I’m planning to move my blog to either Blogspot or Typepad (mapping the subdomain blog.brendanloy.com to the Blogspot/Typepad servers) so that I can drastically reduce the amount of traffic to my WestHost account and thus downgrade from a $260/month dedicated server to a $15/month shared server. I’m hoping to get this done by Wednesday, and I’m in the process of setting it up now.

Because this plan involves permanently severing the blog’s archives into “old blog” and “new blog,” I’m thinking of naming the new blog something other than “The Irish Trojan’s Blog.” It sort of makes sense to do this anyway, because although I’ll always be an Irish Trojan, that appellation is a less significant part of my identity now that I’m no longer a student at either ‘SC or ND. Anyway, my current tentative choice for a new name is “Ably Nerd On,” which is an anagram of “Brendan Loy” first noted here by Jay Johnson, courtesy of the Internet Anagram Server. I think it’s a pretty good name for the blog, as it’s a rather good description of what I do here in cyberspace — or at least, it’s a good description if you’re willing to treat “nerd” as a verb meaning “to be nerdy.” :) However, Becky hates it. So I’m wondering what others think. To wit, a poll.

Please note, this is a non-binding poll. I’m the dictator of my own blog, and as such, I may choose the name even if everyone hates it. :) However, I would like to know what people think. I’m also curious if y’all have any alternative suggestions for a new name. Feel free to leave those in comments.

UPDATE: Okay, so, everybody hates it. Inspired in part by the overwhelming negative poll results, I’m abandoning the idea. (Hey, even a dictator has to avoid being so unpopular that the people revolt!)

I’m thinking I may just call the new blog “Irish Trojan in Tennessee,” thus maintaining the earlier “branding” while still indicating that something has changed. But I continue to be open for suggestions.

P.S. While “Ably Nerd On” is an anagram for Brendan Loy, the anagrams for my full name — Brendan Loomer Loy — include “Blarneyed Lo Moron.” Heh! Maybe I should use that instead! ;) Or perhaps “Ambled Ornery Loon”… or “Blander More Loony”…

Embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales intends to resign, senior administration officials tell CNN.

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Last week, I blogged about the total eclipse of the sun that will sweep across America in ten years. Well, it may be a lot less dramatic and a lot more common, but in just over 24 hours, we’ll be treated to a total eclipse of the moon!

The partial eclipse begins Tuesday morning at 4:51 AM Eastern time (that’s 1:51 Pacific), and totality starts at 5:52 EDT (2:52 PDT). West of the Rockies, the entire eclipse is visible. In the rest of the country, the moon sets at some point during the eclipse — the further east you are, the less of the eclipse you get to see. But everybody in the U.S. gets to see at least part of it. Here’s a map.

Here in Knoxville, we get to see most of the “good part,” when the moon is completely inside the Earth’s umbra, though the sky will be getting lighter toward the end. Totality, as I said, begins at 5:52 AM EDT, and mid-totality is at 6:37. Sunrise is at 7:04, and the moon sets at 7:09. (The closeness in time of sunrise and moonset is no coincidence. In order for an eclipse to occur, the Sun and Moon must be directly opposite each other from the Earth’s perspective, and the timing of their rendezvous with their respective horizons shows that that’s the case.)

The Smoky Mountain Astronomical Society is having an eclipse party at Blount County Library starting at 4:00 AM (seven minutes after the beginning of the subtle penumbral phase, and 51 minutes before first contact with the umbra). I’m planning to go — and as an added bonus, I’m hoping to see my first Iridum flare at 6:11 AM, directly in between the Big Dipper’s “pointer stars” and Polaris. After the jump, a map of where the flare should appear in the northern sky:

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Becky and I recently unpacked several of our boxes of books from South Bend — yeah, the unpacking process has taken a while :) — and filled up our bookshelf. I’m particularly proud of the “nerd shelf”:

Speaking of which, I recently re-read Half-Blood Prince, which I hadn’t read since the day it came out. I had forgotten a lot of its plot, so several things from Deathly Hallows suddenly make a lot more sense now. :) But I’m more perplexed than ever about one thing. So I have a question — but it’s after the jump, because it reveals a major Deathly Hallows spoiler. (I hear there are still at least 3 or 4 people out there who haven’t read it yet.) So… Warning: spoilers after the jump, and in comments.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Trekstor’s latest MP3 player, the i.Beat.Blaxx.

Where’s Al Sharpton when you need him?

(Hat tip: dcl via DaringFireball via Fake Steve Jobs Blog.)

Rumors of my abduction by Unitarian Universalists notwithstanding :), I’m safe and sound in Knoxville after two days of local-area-touring, bluegrass-music-listening, Katrina-presentation-giving, Smoky-Mountain-admiring, Gatlinburg-window-shopping-and-redneck-watching fun with Becky and Adrienne. Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday:

Adrienne heads back to L.A. tomorrow, after which I’ll have a couple of days to work on some logistical matters — including the blog’s big move from a dedicated server to Blogspot — before we head to Buffalo for the baby shower. And then on Tuesday, my job starts! I can’t believe the summer’s already just about over! (On the bright side, college football is almost here. Woohoo!)

As forecasted here (see “PS” at bottom of post, and Comment #6 :), the cyclone-scraped nation of Jamaica has bowed to Reality and postponed its scheduled August 27 election by a week.

In other Democracy-related news, the USofA’s Democratic National Committee’s Rules & Bylaws Committe has voted that millions of Florida Democrats’ ballots will be thrown out if they are cast on January 29 as decreed by Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature, rather than on February 5 (or later) as required by DNC Rules.

(Note: The foregoing paragraph is actually a massively-oversimplified distortion of a complex & important election-Law-vs.-party-Rules story; but what can I tell ya, I’m just feeling Fox-Newsy today. :)

What’s better than a lap dance at a strip club? A lap dance at a strip club that you pay for with a counterfeit $100.

What’s really sad is that you can’t even get a REAL lap dance in Nashville, due to the city’s fairly onerous Sexually Oriented Businesses ordinances. They require a no-touching, 3 foot separation from dancers and patrons at all times. Kinda hard to get an actual “lap” dance that way, I’d suspect.

How would I know about this, you might ask. Well, I just got back from a Continuing Legal Education seminar in Nashville, and well…I picked up a copy of the local alt-weekly while I was there, and they had a pretty scathing article about the whole thing.

p.s. Is the alternate title to this post too crude?

We're with Adrienne (who is visiting from L.A. this weekend) at the Bluegrass in the Smokies festival in Sevierville. Fun!

We’re getting into the climatological heart of the Atlantic hurricane season, when you’d expect the tropics to be teeming with activity if, as virtually everyone has predicted, this is going to end up being an above-average year for hurricanes. Tropical activity historically increases throughout late August and early September, peaking on September 10:

At the moment, however, it’s eerily quiet. Dean was the third-strongest landfalling Atlantic-basin hurricane in recorded history, but now it’s like the calm after the storm. The last six consecutive Tropical Weather Outlooks have said the exact same thing:

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC…CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO…

TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

It’s still not a “slow season” yet, but if this keeps up for the next couple weeks, it will be.

P.S. Alan Sullivan “continue[s] to expect a subnormal season.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Jeff Masters offers a wrap-up of Dean’s aftermath.

NFL has suspended Michael Vick indefinitely, The Associated Press reports.

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Breaking news from Cuba: Generalissimo Francisco Franco Fidel Castro is still alive. Or so says the Cuban government, but rumors are rampant in Miami that he’s knock, knock, knockin’ on Hell’s door.

UPDATE: PerezHilton.com, that renowned source of international news and geopolitical analysis, says Castro is dead. More here. (Hat tip: A&A.)

Pajamas Media has a roundup of links, which will doubtless grow as more information is known. (However, one of their links, supposedly to a Miami Herald story about the Castro death rumors, instead currently points to a Space.com article titled, “Huge Hole Found in the Universe.” Wait… so Fidel Castro got sucked into a black hole???)

P.S. Glenn Reynolds blames “star-devouring space monsters” for the mysterious hole in the universe. Star-devouring, and Castro-devouring!

Nope, not a software unlocker, but a hardcore, hardware unlocking that requires soldering.

Kinda glad that I actually have my mobile service wtih AT&T anyway, so this isn’t really a big deal for me.

UPDATE by David K.

Two software solutions are being announced today as well, and atleast one claims it works even if you do a restore of your iPhone’s software.

John Evander Couey is sentenced to death for the abduction, rape and murder of a 9-year-old Florida girl in 2005.

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