OT...does anyone know why "Latest Posts" shows the same threads as "Latest Articles" when starting FR?
Yeah, I noticed that too. In small print, you'll see a link at the top of the page, it reads "Click here to view Articles and comments.", however you can change your bookmarks to this to get back to the regular latest posts page.
http://www.freeRepublic.com/perl/latest?forum=1&ao=0