“Two days before Charles Bishop killed himself by crashing a small plane into a skyscraper, the 15-year-old student pilot told his best friend to keep an eye on the news,” according to an AP report. “‘He said an airline was thinking of hiring him and he’d be on the news Saturday,’ the friend, Emerson Favreau, said Tuesday.” Favreau didn’t think much of the claim, since Bishop had said the same

“The makers of Minute Maid orange juice are strongly denying suggestions that its television ad campaign featuring Popeye the sailorman promotes a homosexual agenda,” WorldNetDaily reports. “‘”There’s nothing hidden in our intent,’ company spokesman Dan Schafer told WorldNetDaily. ‘There’s no hidden message to it.’” The issue gained worldwide attention after a report in the Daily Star of London featured the headline: ‘Oh Buoy! Popeye’s gone gay!’ The report analyzed a

“Paul H.,” a longtime friend and Bush-baiting New York novelist (author of a wonderfully reviewed book I won’t be plugging any time soon — at least until he takes a ride in my nice, roomy SUV and admits he likes it!), forwarded me this AP report: WASHINGTON – Enron Corp. representatives met six times with Vice President Dick Cheney or his aides about the nation’s energy policy, including a discussion

Robert Redford — ever the champion of social justice — is not content to instruct people in strategies of proper land use (“conserve,” he says — from the comfort of his sprawling ranch, of course). Nope, now the leathery Horse Whisperer-turned-Chattering Sandyblond Man-nanny is criticizing Hollywooders (and Hollywood-ettes) who opt for plastic surgery in order to stave off the debilitating effects of gravity on once perky bosoms or once strong

New site features! As regular visitors to protein wisdom have no doubt noticed, we’ve substantially upgraded our site — both aesthetically and functionally. It hasn’t been easy, given the Bloggy bandwidth problems cropping up of late… Still, we persevere. Take advantage of the new “comments” gizmo to leave us post-specific feedback (which we’ll likely only sneer at). Crazed Avenger Matthew Edgar, ever hopped up on caffeine (happily, unregulated caffeine!), has

For the remaining few who haven’t yet heard about these two geniuses… “The Force is strong in John Guth and Jeff Tweiten. How strong” The Seattle Times asks? Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’ won’t open until May 16, but the two Seattle-area fans are already in line for the film. Guth, 32, and Tweiten, 24, claimed the widely uncoveted first and second places in line outside the

The Weekly Standard’s Victorino Matus never tires of following the Gurkhas, an elite Nepalese warrior force in the service of the British army. Now he’s asking, “if not Afghanistan, when?” You can imagine the Gurkhas today, crawling and climbing through much of the same terrain, hunting down remnants of the Taliban, even hunting for Osama (and imagine if they had come upon John Walker). Instead, it’s the Delta Force and

Fulfilling a pledge to Aussie Wunderblogger Tim Blair, here’s a mention of some news from down under… ” The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service [AQIS] remains on full alert for a possible outbreak of foot and mouth disease [FMD] after outbreaks throughout Asia,” according to this story coming out of….Singapore, is it? The CSIRO this week issued a new warning to watch for FMD after recent outbreaks in South East

“Sixteen-year-old boys still are the most risky drivers on the road, but the girls are gaining,” the AP reports: For every 1,000 licensed 16-year-old girls, 175 got in car accidents in 2000, according to federal accident data. That’s up 37 percent from 1990, when 128 girls crashed per 1,000 drivers. Accidents for 16-year-old boys decreased slightly during the same period, from 216 to 210 per 1,000 drivers. Ah! You’ve come

The Boston Globe’s Cathy Young has an excellent piece in Reason in which she discusses the need for legislative review of rape shield laws, laws that — though well-intentioned — often times place unfair burdens on criminal defendents. Here’s a taste: When rape shield laws were first enacted as part of the rape law reforms initiated by the feminist movement, they were a response to truly abusive practices. Just 30